Maltais, Blondin, Weidemann claim team pursuit silver at speed skating worlds in Calgary
Dubreuil repeats as 500m silver medallist for Canada's 6th medal through 2 days
Canada continued its strong showing at the World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships on Friday, collecting three more medals on Calgary's Olympic Oval.
The trio of Valérie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann won silver in the women's team pursuit, while the men's pursuit team of Connor Howe, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Hayden Mayeur followed it up with bronze.
Laurent Dubreuil repeated as silver medallist in the men's 500 metres to close out the second day of competition.
The Canadian women, who won Olympic gold in 2022, clocked a time of two minutes 54.03 seconds for second place behind the Netherlands, edging Japan for silver by 0.86 seconds.
Joy Beune, Irene Schouten and Marijke Groeneoud reclaimed the world title from Canada with a time of 2:51.20. The Dutch women were the fastest at last year's worlds, but were disqualified because of an equipment violation.
WATCH l Canadian women take team pursuit silver:
In team pursuit, two teams of three skaters begin simultaneously on opposite sides of the oval and race the clock over six laps for women and eight laps for men. It was the fourth career world championship medal in the event for Maltais, Blondin and Weidemann, having also won silver in 2021 and bronze in 2020 after joining forces in 2019.
"I think we nailed our race plan. It obviously was not as fast as the Dutch, and that leaves a bit of a sour taste, but we're going to build on this," Blondin said. "The big goal was not necessarily this weekend, but to win it all at the new Olympics."
Dubreuil was bested by American defending champion Jordan Stolz, who narrowly beat the Lévis, Que., native in the final pairing by just 0.26 seconds — breaking Dubreuil's track record with a personal-best mark of 33.69.
Poland's Damian Żurek also clocked a personal best to round out the podium (34.11).
Stolz was just short of the 500m world record of 33.61, set in 2019 by Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov.
'One of the best races of my life'
Dubreuil, 31, skated the fastest opening 100m of his career (9.45) and second fastest time of his career (33.95) against the 19-year-old phenom.
"I had one of the best races of my life and I'm very, very happy with it," Dubreuil said. "In the last pair, against the best skater of our generation, it's definitely tough to stay focused.
"It's been two years in a row that I win silver and Jordan wins gold quite comfortably, and honestly I don't mind it. We're here to perform at our best and he's pushing the limits of what the human body can do."
WATCH l Dubreuil finishes behind Stolz for 500m silver:
Canada's Yankun Zhao set a personal best to finish 17th (34.65).
Canada was in gold-medal position in the men's team pursuit entering the final pairing between Italy and Norway, which ultimately saw the home team bumped down to third place. The Canadian men finished 0.65 seconds behind the Norwegians with a time of 3:36.72, while Italy's Andrea Giovannini, Davide Ghiotto and Michele Malfatti won gold in 3:35.
Despite only skating together once this season, the Canadian trio was just shy of the national record of 3:36.44.
"We got the team back together at the Four Continents and now we're here, standing on the podium at the world championships," Mayeur said. "It was pretty incredible to win it here in Calgary.
"I've got folks in the stands that have supported me my entire career that got to watch this. Whether we were first, second or fifth, it was pretty amazing to skate in front of such a large and loud home crowd."
WATCH l Canada snags bronze in men's team pursuit:
Femke Kok of the Netherlands successfully defended her title in the women's 500m with a personal-best time of 36.83. South Korean silver medallist Kim Min-sun posted a time of 37.19 to finish just ahead of American Kimi Goetz (37.21).
Hiller and fellow Canadian Heather Carruthers finished 20th (38.30) and 23rd (38.71), respectively.
Live coverage of the world championships continues Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Play-by-play and colour commentary will be supplied by CBC Sports' Signa Butler and Anastasia Bucsis, a former Olympic speed skater.
WATCH l Full replay of Day 2 coverage from Calgary:
With files from Speed Skating Canada, The Canadian Press
