Canada's men win gold to cap off successful Four Continents Championships

Home News Canada’s men win gold to cap off successful Four Continents Championships

CALGARY, ALBERTA – Canada’s long track speed skating team earned three medals on the final day of the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Calgary, bringing their three-day total to nine medals, including three gold.

Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary, Alta.), Hayden Mayeur (Toronto, Ont.) and Kaleb Muller (Cranford, Alta.) were far and away the fastest group in the men’s Team Pursuit on Friday, completing the race in 3:37.219, over 14 seconds faster than second-place Kazakhstan (3:51.593) and third-place Korea (3:54.371).

The win helped Bloemen bump his Four Continents medal total up to three, having previously captured gold in the 5000m and silver in the 1500m. Muller and Mayeur also earned silver medals earlier in the competition, in the 5000m and Mass Start, respectively.

On the women’s side, Regina’s Kali Christ reached the podium for a second consecutive day in an individual distance, winning bronze in the 1000m on Friday after brining home gold in yesterday’s 1500m race. She posted a time of 1:16.508, finishing the distance behind Yekaterina Aidov of Kazakhstan (1:15.492) and Yu-Ting Huang of Taiwan (1:14.457).

Christ followed that up with a silver medal performance in the women’s Team Pursuit, alongside Laura Hall (Salmon Arm, B.C.) and Lindsey Kent (Winnipeg, Man.). The Canadians time of 3:08.693 put them a half-second behind the gold medal winning Americans (3:08.186). Korea rounded out the podium in bronze medal position (3:30.617).

A two-time Olympian, Christ finished the competition with four medals, earning hardware in the 1000m, 1500m, Team Sprint and Team Pursuit.

This marks the end of international competition for Canada’s long track speed skating team, who have participated in four ISU World Cups and the Four Continents Championships over the past six weeks. The team will now shift their focus to the Olympic Skate-Off, scheduled for December 27-31 in Quebec City, where the final spots on the Beijing 2022 team will be up for grabs.

“I feel really good! Medals aside, I’ve started feeling like myself again this week. I’m actually able to transfer the technical advice that I’m getting in practice into my racing. It’s going really well and that’s showing up in my times. It’s still not quite what I use to be able to do, but I’m definitely getting closer. It’s a nice confidence boost.” – Kali Christ
“This week has been absolutely incredible. I’ve really enjoyed the entire experience and the opportunity to represent Canada. I feel like I had a good skate today. I think I could have executed a bit better – I kind of slipped a little bit on the entry into my first corner – but all in all it was a good race and really close to my personal best.” – Anders Johnson

CANADIAN RESULTS

Men’s 1000m