Canada still medal-less at speed skating worlds
Men's pursuit team misses podium by 0.08 seconds
The Canadian men's pursuit team just missed the podium at the world single distance speed skating championships on Friday in South Korea, finishing less than one-10th of a second behind third-place Norway.
The Netherlands won the race on the 2018 Olympic track in three minutes 40.66 seconds and New Zealand was second in 3:41.08. Norway took the bronze in 3:41.60 while the team of Toronto's Jordan Belchos, Calgary's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Ben Donnelly of Oshawa, Ont., was fourth in 3:41.68.
The trio was third in last year's event, narrowly finishing ahead of Italy.
"Last year, we won a bronze medal by one hundredth of a second and now, here we are on the other side and we get to find out what it feels like," said Belchos. "It's going to fuel the fire for the next 12 months.
"It's going to help us get up in the morning when it's really tough in the summer, something to remind us how hard it is to be the best in the world. We're only a second away from a win. We're a team that comes to win. We can take that from today and move forward."
Olympic silver medallist Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands won the 500-metre title on the 2018 Olympic track. He clocked 34.58 seconds to finish 0.08 seconds ahead of Nico Ihle of Germany.
Ruslan Murashov of Russia was third in 34.76. Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., was the top Canadian in ninth.
Nao Kodaira of Japan took the women's 500 title in 37.13, 0.35 seconds ahead of Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea.
Yu Jing of China was third in 37.57. Winnipeg's Heather McLean was the top Canadian in fifth, just ahead of Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., in sixth.
The Dutch team won the women's team pursuit in 2:55.85, 0.64 seconds ahead of Japan. South Korea was third in 3:02.95.
The Canadian team of Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann, both of Ottawa, and Brianne Tutt from Airdrie, Alta., didn't finish the race.
On the opening day of the single distance worlds on Thursday, Canada's Ivanie Blondin finished fourth in the women's 3,000 and Bloemen was fifth in the men's 5,000.
Eight races still remain at the meet, which run through Sunday.
Watch CBC Sports' live streaming coverage Saturday at 3:30 a.m ET and Sunday 4 a.m. ET, and catch more coverage on CBC TV's Road to the Olympic Games show Sunday at 1 p.m. local time.
With files from CBC Sports and The Associated Press