BLONDIN GOLDEN BEFORE OLYMPICS
Ottawa speedskater plays part in Canada’s winning weekend, Dan Barnes writes.
Ivanie Blondin conjured up a blast from the Canadian past with a gold medal in the 3,000-metre event at a speedskating World Cup in Erfurt, Germany, on Sunday.
A Canadian woman hadn’t won World Cup gold at this distance since Cindy Klassen did it in March 2006. Kristina Groves won gold at the World Championships in 2008.
It was Blondin’s fourth medal of the World Cup season and first gold. It vaults the Ottawa native into the Pyeongchang Olympics next month on a high.
“I think this whole week, I’ve had a really calm mindset. I just did what I had to do and focused on the right things,” said Blondin, who finished in 4:04.86 to beat Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands (4:05.45) and Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic (4:05.91).
“It was a great race, super steady. I was conservative in the beginning a little bit and I think that it helped me maintain the right pace today on this ice.”
Alex Boisvert-Lacroix, of Sherbrooke, Que., won a bronze in the men’s 500 metres, and was just 0.15 behind race winner Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway. Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands took silver.
“My coach over the last four seasons, Gregor Jelonek, told me that I could even have won the race,” Boisvert-Lacroix said. “Over the last few metres, I tensed up when I felt the Norwegian skater (Holmefjord Lorentzen) gain some ground on me. But these are adjustments we will make before the Games.”
Canadian skaters won 22 medals through the first five World Cups of the season, matching the total collected by the previous squad heading into the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. It’s also 12 more than the team managed before the Sochi Games in 2014.
Moguls skier Justine DufourLapointe stood at the top of the podium for the first time this season and enjoyed the view — perhaps more than ever before.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud to win a World Cup,” she said at Mont Tremblant, Que., on Saturday. “The start of the season was a little rockier, but I’m really happy to finally get to this point. Today the crowd gave me that energy boost I needed, and I appreciated it all day long.”
Fellow Canadian Andi Naude was right on her heels, winning silver.
“I’m thrilled to be on the podium today right before the Games,” Naude said. “I think this was one of the most enjoyable competition days I’ve ever had. Going into the Games with a second-place finish and sharing the podium with my teammate is more than I could have hoped for.”
In men’s action, overall World Cup leader Mikael Kingsbury was denied a 14th straight win when Ikuma Horishima bumped him down to silver. The margin of victory was just 0.61 points.
“I skied my best, but Ikuma did a run that I couldn’t beat. I made a tiny error before the bottom jump and the jump wasn’t my best. He is completely deserving of his win,” Kingsbury said.
The Canadian bobsled squad is heading into the Olympics with confidence and great expectations.
Kaillie Humphries and Justin Kripps wrapped up overall titles in women’s and two-man action respectively this weekend by finishing on the podium yet again at a World Cup in Konigssee, Germany.
With Alex Kopacz in the back seat, Kripps took bronze in the two-man race and will head to Pyeongchang as the top two-man driver on the circuit. It’s his first title. He’s also fourth in the fourman standings.
Humphries, who won her fourth overall championship, paired on Saturday with Phylicia George to win a silver medal in Konigssee.
The only other time two Canadian sleds secured overall titles was 2013, when Humphries and Lyndon Rush were on top.
“Winning the overall is absolutely huge,” Kripps said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I started driving. I’m really proud of both Alex and Jesse (Lumsden), who both pushed very well to share the two-man workload. It’s incredible we didn’t finish worse than fourth the whole season.”
Kripps drove to a gold, three silver, a bronze and three fourthplace finishes in the eight World Cup stops this season.
Humphries also had a consistent campaign with three wins, five podiums and a ninth-place finish. She had both George and Melissa Lotholz in her sled this season.
Georgia Simmerling crashed and broke her left leg in ski cross action at Nakiska, a resort in the Alberta Rockies, on Saturday. She will miss the Olympics.
Simmerling, from West Vancouver, B.C., was fourth overall on the World Cup and was seen as a medal contender.
Canadian Brian McKeever won silver on Sunday in the men’s 20-kilometre cross-country International Paralympic Committee World Cup skate-ski race in Obberried, Germany.
McKeever and his guide Graham Nishikawa finished the race in 42 minutes 36.3 seconds for second place in the visually impaired classification.
In the men’s standing classification, Mark Arendz backed up his career-best cross-country ski classic race with a fifth-place finish. Arendz, of Hartsville, P.E.I., completed the five-lap course in a time of 45:15.5.
Emily Young of Kelowna, B.C., also finished fifth in the women’s standing division. Brittany Hudak, of Prince Albert, Sask., was seventh at 49:55.4.