Dubreuil, women’s pursuit team capture silvers at World Cup in Poland
Laurent Dubreuil came within a tenth of a second of first place in the 500m to capture silver, while the women’s pursuit team also claimed silver despite a familiar face being out of the lineup at the ISU World Cup in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.
Dubreuil finished in between China’s Tingyu Gao, and current 500m World Cup leader Wataru Morishige of Japan. In an extremely competitive result, Gao narrowly beat out Dubreuil finishing with a time of 34.70 seconds, while the Canadian crossed at 34.77 seconds.
It’s the second World Cup medal of the season for Dubreuil, after he claimed a silver in Beijing in November.
Dubreuil is the two-time reigning World Cup champion in the 500m. He currently sits in fourth place for the 2023-24 season.
In the women’s pursuit, the team of Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais, and Beatrice Lamarche raced to a second consecutive silver medal.
Canada’s last silver came in the most recent women’s pursuit race in Obihiro, Japan in November, with Isabelle Weidemann racing instead of Lamarche. The new trio improved on that time, jumping from 3:03.24 to 2:59.25. Despite the improvement, it was not good enough to catch Japan who won their second consecutive gold in the event.
The silver is the first medal in the distance without Isabelle Weidemann since the 2018-19 season.
Poland rounded out the podium in third place.
READ: Canada wins silver in women’s pursuit at Obihiro World Cup
Speed skating action concludes tomorrow in Poland with the women’s 1000m and mass start, and the men’s 500m-2, and 5000m race.