Hamelin strikes gold in parade to podium
Canadian team claims six medals at Shanghai World Cup speedskating
Charles Hamelin raced to gold in the men’s 1,000 metres at a short-track speedskating World Cup event to top a six-medal performance Sunday by Canada’s team.
Marianne St-Gelais won bronze in the women’s 1,000 metres, while William Preudhomme and Kasandra Bradette won bronze in the men’s and women’s 500 metres, respectively. Both the men’s and women’s relay teams also won bronze.
Hamelin, from Sainte-Julie, Que., captured his first gold of the season, a day after winning silver in the 1,500 metres.
“I was able to skate smartly, to overtake effectively and in the right moments, and I had the energy to attack until the end,” Hamelin said. “Everything went very well.”
St-Gelais, from Saint-Felicien, Que., won her second medal of the weekend after finishing second in Saturday’s 500.
“I made the mistake of getting back in the third spot after overtaking and I was fourth for a great part of the race, but I said to myself that I was going to prepare something for the end,” said St-Gelais. “On the last turn, I did start to overtake on the inside — there were some hands, some arms and lot of things — but I was finally able to pull up to third place.”
Bradette, from Saint-Felicien, and Toronto’s Preudhomme both earned their first career individual World Cup medals.
Samuel Girard of Ferland-etBoilleau, QC, Charles and Francois Hamelin, and Patrick Duffy of Oakville, Ont., raced to bronze in the men’s 5,000 relay.
St-Gelais, Bradette, Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Que., and Joanie Gervais, of Saguenay, Que., were third in the women’s relay.
Here’s a look at some of the other winter sports events held on the weekend:
FINN WINS SECOND STRAIGHT BIATHLON
HOCHFILZEN, Canada’s Rosanna Crawford finished a career-best fifth in a biathlon World Cup event Sunday.
Kaisa Makarainen of Finland dominated the women’s pursuit for her third straight World Cup win, finishing in 30 minutes 44.8 seconds. Russia’s Ekaterina Glazyrina was second while Anais Bescond of France won the bronze).
Crawford, a two-time Olympian from Canmore and sister to Olympic cross-country skiing gold medallist Chandra, missed just one shot in her first of four rounds of shooting to narrowly miss the podium, finishing in 31:38.2.
RICHARDSON RECORDS SPRINT DOUBLE
Heather Richardson won the speedskating World Cup 1,500- and 500-metre races Sunday to add to her victory a day earlier in the 1,000.
Richardson’s American teammate Brittany Bowe was second in both events, just as she was second in Saturday’s 1,000. .
Richardson won the 1,500 in one minute, 53.87 seconds, impressing Ireen Wust, who finished fourth.
“That is extremely fast,” the Dutch skater said.
Jan Szymanski of Poland won the men’s 1,500 in 1:45.92, beating Dutchman Wouter olde Heuvel. American veteran Shani Davis was third. Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was 11th while Alec Janssens of Chilliwack, B.C., was 18th.
Sprinter Pavel Kulizhnikov also won his third race of the weekend, taking the second 500-metre race of the World Cup meet in 34.58 seconds.
Artur Was of Poland, the winner of both 500 races last week in Berlin, was second in Sunday’s 500 and Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands finished third. Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., who was looking for a medal in a fifth straight 500m race, finished fourth while Calgary’s Gilmore Junio placed eighth.
Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa won her second mass start of the season, pushing her podium streak in that event to four races and giving her five medals at the ISU long track speedskating World Cup this season.
Blondin’s winning time in the 16-lap race was eight minutes, 24.01 seconds.
“I’m extremely pleased with how that raced turned out. I had a plan and I stuck with it,” the 24-yearold said.
HIRSCHER TAKES OVERALL LEAD AT WORLD CUP
AR E , SW ED E N Marcel Hirscher was bitterly disappointed to discover he wouldn’t be skiing on his favourite French slope but going to the icy-cold Sweden mountains instead. The switch worked out perfectly. The Austrian won Sunday’s World Cup slalom to add to his crushing victory in Friday’s giant slalom, mastering the conditions on the rock-hard Olympia course to perfection and moving atop the overall rankings.
He overcame a first-leg deficit of .25 seconds to edge out German skier Felix Neureuther by. 10 for his 26th career victory — moving him level with Austrian great Franz Klammer.
NORWAY SWEEPS PODIUM IN CROSS- COUNTRY
DAVOS , SWITZERLA N D Norwayswept men’s and women’s podiums Sunday as Finn Haagen Krogh and Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg won sprint races in the cross-country skiing World Cup.
Krogh covered the 1.3-kilometre course just 0.62 faster than Anders Gloeersen.
Len Valjas of Toronto finished 13th in his best race in more than a year. The multiple World Cup medallist has been battling knee injuries.