Canadian men's sprint team sets world record in photo finish win at speed skating worlds
Canada's women's sprint team captures back-to-back gold on home ice in Calgary
Canada won its second consecutive gold medals in both the women's and men's team sprint events at the World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships in Calgary on Thursday.
The women's trio of Carolina Hiller, Maddison Pearman and Ivanie Blondin finished with a time of 1:25.14 in their event.
Canada beat the second-place United States — who finished at 1:26.04 — by a mere 0.90.
Poland rounded out the podium, taking bronze with total time of 1:26.63.
WATCH | Canada claims back-to-back world speed skating titles:
After the Canadian women's victory, the trio of Anders Johnson, Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu earned Canada its second men's team sprint world title in a row — making history in the process.
Canada set a world record during its gold-medal conquest, coming in at 1:17.173. Their result was determined by a photo finish as the Netherlands' team appeared to come in at the same time.
The photo finish revealed that the Canadians edged out the Dutch by 0.002 of a second. Norway picked up bronze.
"A world record and a world championship, it feels absolutely amazing!" Gelinas-Beaulieu said in a Speed Skating Canada press release. "We know that the three of us work well together, not only individually with our roles in the race, but also as a team.
"When we came across the line, there was a bit of a delay before the times were posted, but when I saw we were first it was an exhilarating moment. I cannot describe the feeling."
WATCH | Canadian men make history during gold medal finish in sprint event:
Canada's Isabelle Weidemann had to wait, and wait, and wait. In the end, all that patience paid off.
The Ottawa native earned silver in the women's 3,000 metres Thursday at the world championships in Calgary.
Skating in the fourth group of 10 as a result of a bumpy World Cup season, the three-time Olympic medallist stopped the clock in three minutes 58.01 seconds, handing her what was at the time an eight-second lead with 12 of the top skaters still to go.
But it was only the Netherlands' Irene Schouten, racing in the final group along Canada's Valérie Maltais, who was able to top Weidemann's time.
WATCH | Weidemann speeds to silver:
Schouten, who won three gold medals including the 3,000 at the Beijing Olympics, came in at 3:57.10 to clip the Canadian. Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic rounded out the podium with bronze at 3:58.33.
Maltais, who was third in the season's long-distance standings, placed 10th at 4:06.17, while fellow Canadian Ivanie Blondin was sixth at 4:03.14.
Weidemann, 28, won three medals of each colour in Beijing, including bronze in the 3,000. But she endured a slow start to her season, missing podiums and eventually skipping two World Cup events to take something of a reset. She then placed fourth in the 3,000 at the World Cup finale in Quebec City.
Meanwhile, Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen placed fifth with his time of 6:12.66 in the men's 5,000. Fellow Canadian Jordan Belchos was last among 20 skaters at 6:36.60.
Bloemen, 37, placed second in the season-long men's long distances standings and will still race the 10,000 in Calgary.
The Netherlands' Patrick Roest won gold at 6:07.28, while Italian Davide Ghiotto took silver at 6:08.61 and Norway's Sander Eitream snagged bronze at 6:09.00.
Live coverage of the world championships continues on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
