Strong World Cup start for Canadian skaters
Canada's long-track speedskaters are off to a blazing start on the World Cup circuit, collecting three medals from four event finals on Friday.
No other country's athletes made more than two podium appearances on the first day of a three-day meet in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland.
Ottawa's Isabelle Weidemann briefly held the Arena Lodowa track record in the women's 3,000 metres, crossing in 4:05.255, and the 26-year-old hung on to grab silver behind Irene Schouten of the Netherlands. Calgary's Ted-jan Bloemen led the men's 5,000-metre field with a time of 6:20.941 until the final pairing, when Sweden's Nils van der Poel laid down a lightning fast 6:15.56 to win gold and drop Bloemen to silver.
Laurent Dubreuil of Quebec started the Canadian medal haul with a bronze in the men's 500 metres behind athletes from China and Japan.
“To start the season with a podium, that's really ideal,” said Dubreuil. “While we are concentrating on our own performance, this proves to me right away that I have the legs to compete with the best all season.”
Most of the 2020-21 World Cup season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Friday's races marked the first international speedskating action for Team Canada since the World Single Distances Championships and two World Cups were held in a bubble last January and February in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
“For me, this World Cup was really exciting to be back in a normal way,” said Bloemen. “Last year, we did some competitions, we had a bubble in Heerenveen, but it was all very strange and half of the athletes weren't even there, so it was a really good feeling to be back at it at a normal World Cup.
“I knew I was in good shape. I already showed some good races in the pre-season and also the skating here, it felt good again right away. So that was good. Then there is always the question mark of what are the other guys going to do, how good are the other countries, and it was really fun to find out that I'm doing really good. I got second. Even on a slower rink .... For me, that's not usually a good thing. I rely on my technique a lot and that mostly helps you on fast conditions, not really on slow conditions. If I can do this on a slower rink, then it's really good, I think.”
He led the Canadian contingent, which included Graeme Fish of Moose Jaw, Sask., in 12th and Jordan Belchos of Toronto in 16th.
Bloemen said he was surprised to see van der Poel win by such a large margin. “I didn't expect to be so far off the leader. So I think he did a really good race. He didn't race at all before this race so we didn't know what to expect from him. But that was a really strong showing from Nils.”
Weidemann served notice she will be a force at 3,000 metres again this season, slogging through what she called “working ice” to grab a medal. Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa was eighth and Valerie Maltais of Saguenay, Que. placed 12th.
The meet continues Saturday with finals in the women's 500 and 1,000 metres and team pursuit, as well as the men's 1,500 metres and mass start.