COLLALBO, ITALY – Jalen Doan joined elite company on Friday, becoming only the second Canadian to capture the 500m title at the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships, reaching the top step of the podium in Collalbo, Italy.
The 19-year-old Calgary native, fresh of a 500m victory at last weekend’s ISU Junior World Cup, grabbed gold by the narrowest of margins in his first race of the weekend. His time of 35.83 was only +0.01 faster than silver medalist Fuga Tsujimoto of Japan. Germany’s Finn Sonnekalb rounded out the podium in bronze medal position (+0.08).
A three-time ISU World Junior Championship competitor, the reigning national champion had previously finished fourth (2023) and eighth (2024) in the distance on the international stage.
“I’m super happy about the result today. I felt like I executed my race plan pretty well. I’ve always had dreams of being Junior World Champion and I’m really glad that I was able to make it happen today. Me and my coach have been working very hard towards this for a very long time now. I have a lot of goals in the future, but this was a huge moment for me in my career. It means the world to me.”Jalen Doan
With the victory, Doan joins Laurent Dubreuil as the only Canadians to capture the 500m junior crown, with the Lévis native accomplishing the feat back in 2012. Doan also becomes Canada’s first World Junior Champion in an individual distance since Ben Donnelly captured both the 1000m and 5000m titles in 2016.
Only Dubreuil, Christopher Fiola, Richard MacLennan and Guillaume Blais Dufour have reached the 500m podium at the event since medals for individual distances were added to the program in 2009. Prior to that, results in individuals distances were only used to help calculate Allround rankings, for which medals were awarded at the conclusion of the event.
In other Canadian results on Friday, Julia Snelgrove (Dartmouth, N.S.) and Skylar Van Horne (Winnipeg, Man.) finished eighth and ninth in the women’s 500m respectively, while Darby Beeson (Airdrie, Alta.) and Isabelle Champagne (Calgary, Alta.) earned top 3 results in their mass start semifinals, punching their ticket to Sunday’s medal race.
Snelgrove, the two-time reigning national champion, is currently ranked third in the women’s Allround standings after two distances, +3.26 seconds behind leader Jeannine Rosner of Austria.
The ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships continues tomorrow with the women’s 1000m and 3000m, as well as the men’s 1000m and 5000m. Races will be live streamed on the ISU YouTube channel.
CONTACT
Alain Brouillette
Speed Skating Canada
communications@speedskating.ca
613-601-2630