The News (New Glasgow)

OLYMPIC GAMES COVERAGE

Speedskate­r Bloemen wins 10,000-metre gold in Olympic-record time on huge day for country

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After settling for silver in the men’s 5,000 metres, Calgary speedskate­r Ted-Jan Bloemen lamented that he didn’t have more in the tank to challenge Dutch great Sven Kramer for gold.

His tank was full of high-grade octane on Thursday, as Bloemen dominated the competitio­n in the men’s 10,000 metres and won the gold medal in an Olympic-record time.

Skating with confidence and consistenc­y in the second-last pair, Bloemen laid down a time of twelve minutes, 39.77 seconds. It was a mark not even Kramer, one of the greatest speedskate­rs of all time, could match.

Perhaps daunted by the high bar set by Bloemen, Kramer flagged during his skate and finished a shocking sixth. Bloemen’s camp was so sure of victory that coach Bart Schouten gave the eventual Olympic champion a victory hug while Kramer still had 2,000 metres to skate.

Bloemen’s gold was part of a banner day for Canada’s Olympians that saw the luge relay team of Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith win silver and pairs figure skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford take bronze.

Meanwhile, Canada’s women’s hockey team finished the roundrobin undefeated with a 2-1 win over archrival United States. And the men opened with a convincing 5-1 win over Switzerlan­d.

Canada sat third in the overall medal standings after six days of competitio­n with 13 medals (four gold, five silver, four bronze). Norway leads with 17 medals, followed by 15 for Germany.

Canada’s four gold medals are fifth behind Germany (9), Norway (6), and the Netherland­s and United States (5).

The 31-year-old Bloemen, who moved from the Netherland­s to Calgary four years ago to compete for Canada, added the Olympic record to his world record in the gruelling 10,000-metre distance.

“I always felt from deep inside that I was able to do something special on the ice, but I was never able to show it. I had to find a different way to do it because I found I hit a wall in my career,” Bloemen said on his move to Canada.

Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma, the 2014 victor in the 10k, was second and briefly held the Olympic record with a time of 12:41.98 until Bloemen erased it in the next pairing. Italy’s Nicola Tumolero took the bronze.

Toronto’s Jordan Belchos finished fifth with a career-best time of 12:59.51.

Bloemen’s father Gerhard-Jan was born in Bathurst, N.B., and lived in Canada for seven years before his family returned to the Netherland­s.

Since arriving in Calgary in the spring of 2014, Bloemen has obtained his Canadian citizenshi­p and married his Dutch wife Marlinde in a ceremony in Calgary.

Elsewhere, Canada earned its second Olympic luge medal in dramatic fashion as the relay team raced to a time of two minutes 24.872 seconds.

The powerhouse Germans won gold in 2:24.517 while Austria took bronze in 2:24.988.

The Canadians mobbed Walker and Snith after their doubles run put Canada atop the standings with just the Austrians and Germans to go.

The medal was redemption for the Canadian team, which finished fourth in the relay when it made its Olympic debut four years ago — a mere tenth of a second back of third.

The foursome got bumped up to bronze for what would have been Canada’s first luge podium at a Games in December when two Russian competitor­s were among dozens of athletes from the host nation stripped of their 2014 results and banned for life for alleged doping violations by the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee.

But the Canadians were once again pushed back to fourth following the Court of Arbitratio­n for Sport’s recent decision to overturn the punishment for 28 of those athletes, including lugers Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova.

“It shows the strength of our team. That fuelled us. That fuelled us for a long time,” Edney said. “I just know that we put in all the hard work and we did everything right.”

Gough secured Canada’s firstever Olympic medal in luge with a bronze in Tuesday’s women’s race.

Meanwhile, Duhamel and Radford ended a dry spell for Canada in pairs figure skating, capping their final Olympics with a bronze medal.

Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Radford of Balmertown, Ont., finished third Thursday to give Canada its first Olympic pairs medal since Jamie Sale and David Pelletier captured gold in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

Duhamel and Radford, twotime world champions competing in their final season, scored 153.33 points for their program to Adele’s “Hometown Glory,” and 230.15 total points.

Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot won gold with 235.90 while reigning world champions Sui Wenging and Han Cong of China took silver with 235.47.

“It’s the sweetest (ending) it could possibly be right now,” Radford said. “I don’t think that there’s any better way.”

“I don’t think there’ve been happier bronze medallists than we are,” added Duhamel.

It’s the second medal of the Games for Duhamel and Radford, who helped lead Canada to gold in the team event earlier in the week.

The winning continued Thursday as Canada’s women’s hockey team clinched top spot in pool play by beating the arch-rival Americans 2-1.

Meghan Agosta of Ruthven, Ont., and Hamilton’s Sarah Nurse scored in the second period for the Canadians, who are aiming for a fifth straight Olympic title.

Genevieve Lacasse of Kingston, Ont., stopped 44 shots.

“I always expect a lot of shots against the U.S. and we did a great job keeping their shots to the outside,” Lacasse said. “They usually get a good amount of shots, but not necessaril­y that many quality ones.”

With her 16th goal in her fourth Olympics, Agosta moved into second all-time behind Canada’s Hayley Wickenheis­er (18).

Both the U.S. and Canada had already booked berths in Monday’s semifinals, having won their first two games in Pool A.

In men’s hockey, Canada found its offence early as Rene Bourque and Wojtek Wolski each scored twice in a workmanlik­e win over the Swiss.

Maxim Noreau had a goal and an assist for the Canadians, while goaltender Ben Scrivens made 28 saves.

Ottawa’s Rachel Homan had an Olympic debut to forget with an 8-6 loss to South Korea and a 7-6 extra-end loss to Sweden in her first two games of the women’s curling tournament.

It was a better day for Calgary skip Kevin Koe, who improved to 3-0 in men’s competitio­n with a 7-4 win over Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud.

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 ?? AP PHOTO ?? Ted-Jan Bloemen celebrates after winning the men’s 10,000-metre speedskati­ng race.
AP PHOTO Ted-Jan Bloemen celebrates after winning the men’s 10,000-metre speedskati­ng race.
 ?? CP PHOTO ?? Canadian lugers Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith celebrate their team’s silver medal.
CP PHOTO Canadian lugers Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith celebrate their team’s silver medal.
 ?? CP PHOTO ?? Rene Bourque scored twice in Canada’s 5-1 win over Switzerlan­d in men’s hockey.
CP PHOTO Rene Bourque scored twice in Canada’s 5-1 win over Switzerlan­d in men’s hockey.

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