Hamelin takes short-track speedskating gold
SHANGHAI — Charles Hamelin raced to gold in the men’s 1,000 metres at a short-track speedskating World Cup 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 StGelais. “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 medal.
Richardson records sprint double
HEERENVEEN, NETHERLANDS — 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. Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands was third in the 1,500 and Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea was third in the 500.
Jan Szymanski of Poland won the men’s 1,500 in 1:45.92, beating Dutchman Wouter olde Heuvel into second. American veteran Shani Davis was third. Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was 11th in 1:47.92.
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 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 in 35.07 seconds. Calgary’s Gilmore Junio placed eighth in 35.12.
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 speed skating World Cup this season.
Hirscher grabs World Cup lead
ARE, SWEDEN — Marcel Hirscher was bitterly disappointed to discover he would not 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 top of 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.
In the overall standings, Hirscher has 440 points, with Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud second with 412 and American Ted Ligety — who crashed out Sunday — third with 246.
Alberta’s Crawford fth in biathlon
HOCHFILZEN, AUSTRIA — Canmore’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 at 31:19.2, while Anais Bescond of France won the bronze (31:31.3).
Crawford, a two-time Olympian 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.