Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais scored a Canadian double podium in the women’s mass start event at the ISU Long Track Speed Skating World Cup in Beijing, China.
Blondin (8:37.58) and Maltais (8:37.74) took second and third place respectively in the second World Cup competition of the season. This is only the second time that two Canadians have reached the podium together at this distance during a World Cup.
Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands was the only skater faster with a time of 8:24.71.
Both Blondin and Maltais claimed a silver in the team pursuit last weekend in Obihiro, Japan. For Blondin, it’s the third medal of the early World Cup season as she also claimed gold in the mass start last weekend.
On the men’s side, Laurent Dubreuil made an appearance on the podium after winning the silver medal in the 500m-2 event. Dubreuil couldn’t catch Japan’s Wataru Morishige, who won his second 500m race in as many days, finishing 0.12 seconds ahead of the Canadian. Japan’s Yuma Murakami finished third.
In the men’s 5000m, Ted-Jan Bloemen narrowly missed the podium with a fourth place finish and a time of 6:16.89, which was 1.47 seconds behind third place.
Long track World Cup action will continue from Beijing tomorrow with five events with medal potential for Canada.
