Silver medal for Dubreuil in men’s 500m on day one of ISU World Cup Final
Laurent Dubreuil captures only medal for Canada on Saturday, while Ted-Jan Bloemen concludes the season ranked third overall in the long distances
HEERENVEEN, NETHERLANDS – Landing in the Netherlands just hours before the ISU World Cup Final began, Laurent Dubreuil returned to the start line on Saturday to capture a silver medal in the men’s 500m.
Skating in front of a sold-out crowd at the Thialf Ice Stadium, the Lévis, Que. native crossed the finish line with a time of 34.532 to share the second step of the podium with Japan’s Wataru Morishige, who clocked the exact same race time. Tatsuya Shinhama, also of Japan, won the gold medal with a time of 34.384. Dubreuil is the current leader in the 500m World Cup standings with 528 points, having won a medal in all nine races of the distance so far this season.
“It has been a completely crazy day. After finally getting the green light yesterday to participate, the only flight that would arrive on time left at 6:00 this morning. I left straight from the airport in Amsterdam to Thialf and arrived only an hour and a half before my race. I didn’t think I was capable of doing a race like I did; I thought I would finish closer to tenth. I only trained once in the past eight days and also had to overcome COVID. My result is absolutely incredible given these circumstances and I am very happy.” – Laurent Dubreuil
Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary, Alta.) finished fifth (6:21.094) in the men’s 5000m to end his season in third place in the overall long distance World Cup rankings with 264 points. World record holder and Olympic Champion in the distance Nils van der Poel of Sweden won Saturday’s race (6:08.815) and captured the overall title with 360 points.
Dubreuil was back on the ice for the men’s 1000m, finishing thirteenth (1:09.918) behind teammate Connor Howe (Canmore, Alta.) who was eleventh (1:09.178). Dubreuil concludes the season ranked seventh overall in the distance while Howe finishes tenth.
Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) was Canada’s best finisher during Saturday’s races on the women’s side, placing tenth in the 1500m.
The World Cup Final in Heerenveen continues on Sunday with the second men’s and women’s 500m, women’s 1000m, men’s 1500m, women’s 3000m and both the men’s and women’s mass start. The races will be streamed on CBC Sports starting 8 AM (ET).
Full Canadian Results
Men’s 500m
• Laurent Dubreuil 2nd (1st overall)
• Gilmore Junio 12th (19th overall)
Women’s 500m
• Brooklyn McDougall 12th (18th overall)
Women’s 1500m
• Ivanie Blondin 10th (10th overall)
• Maddison Pearman 13th (15th overall)
Men’s 1000m
• Connor Howe 11th (10th overall)
• Laurent Dubreuil 13th (7th overall)
Men’s 5000m
• Ted-Jan Bloemen 5th (3rd overall)
• Jordan Belchos 9th (13th overall)
MEDIA CONTACT
Nicole Espenant
Speed Skating Canada
communications@speedskating.ca
613-797-1630