Personal bests and a World Record fall on fast ice in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY, USA – Laurent Dubreuil extended his streak of World Cup podiums in the men’s 500m at the Utah Olympic Oval on Friday, setting a new personal best time to take bronze in the opening event of the competition.
 
Despite being flagged for a false start, Dubreuil put forth a strong race and sat in second with a time of 34.099 following his pair. The native of Lévis, QC would eventually finish with the bronze medal, with faster times achieved by Japanese skaters Yamato Matsui (34.048) and Wataru Morishige (34.091) for gold and silver.
 
Dubreuil’s biggest adversary so far this season, Tatsuya Shinhama of Japan, finished sixth in the race, widening the Canadian’s lead in the overall World Cup standings to 12 points. Dubreuil has now achieved a podium result in the past seven 500m races in which he has competed on the World Cup circuit.
 
A new World Record was set in the men’s 5,000m at the high elevation Utah Olympic Oval when Nils van der Poel of Sweden completed the race in 6:01.566. He bested the mark set by Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary, AB) prior to the 2018 Olympic Games. Bloemen finished eighth in the distance on Friday and sits second in the overall World Cup rankings behind van der Poel.
 
A trio of Canadian women also finished in the top 10 of the women’s 3000m. Isabelle Weidemann (Ottawa, ON) found herself just off the podium in fourth, but still sits second in the overall World Cup rankings. Both Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa, ON) and Valérie Maltais (Saguenay, QC) set new personal best times that put them in sixth and tenth, respectively.
 
In B Division racing, Marsha Hudey (White City, SK) finished second in the women’s 500m.
 
The World Cup in Salt Lake City continues on Saturday with the second women’s 500m, men’s 1500m, women’s 1000m, men’s mass start and women’s team pursuit. Races will be streamed live on CBC Sports beginning at 2:30pm ET.

“My streak will end at some point for sure! But I never thought that in my career I would be this consistently on the podium. The only thing I can do is show up and do my best, but I’m at a point where technically I’m sound enough to do a good race every time. The margins are so close in the men’s 500m that most races have been won by less than a tenth [of a second], so as soon as I have an average race, I’ll probably find myself off the podium.”

– Laurent Dubreuil

FULL CANADIAN RESULTS

Women’s 500m
Brooklyn McDougall – 18^th
Marsha Hudey – 2^nd (Division B)
Kaylin Irvine – 10^th (Division B)
Heather McLean – 11^th (Division B)
Men’s 500m
Laurent Dubreuil – 3^rd
Alex Boisvert-Lacroix – 5^th (Division B)
Gilmore Junio – 13^th (Division B)
Jacob Graham – 26^th (Division B)

Women’s 3000m
Isabelle Weidemann – 4^th
Ivanie Blondin – 6^th
Valérie Maltais – 10^th 
Alexa Scott – 19^th (Division B)

Men’s 5000m
Ted-Jan Bloemen – 8^th
Jordan Belchos – 13th(Division B)
Kaleb Muller – 22nd(Division B)

MEDIA CONTACT
Nicole Espenant
Speed Skating Canada
communications@speedskating.ca
613-797-1630