While Swede Nils van der Poel won the gold medal in extremis on Sunday in the 5000m long track speed skating event at the Beijing Olympics, Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen finished 10th. .
The Olympic champion covered the distance in 6 min 08.84 s. However, it was complicated the task with a rather slow start. He then came back from behind with a sensational last loop of 28.97 s. Dutchman Patrick Roest (+0.47s) and Norwegian Hallgeir Engebraaten (+1.04) completed the podium.
Decorated with silver four years earlier in Pyeongchang, Bloemen finished 10 seconds behind the champion. Unlike van der Poel, he seemed to lack energy at the end of the race. The Canadian had however been crowned world champion in 2020, before van der Poel succeeded him the following year.
Bloemen will try to recover in the 1,500m on Tuesday, then in the 10,000m on Friday.
A spectacular comeback
At the National Aquatics Centre, Rachel Homan and John Morris tied the game in the eighth end before capitalizing on a failed Czech outing in the extra frame. They won 7-5 in the mixed doubles curling tournament.
With two games remaining in the preliminary round, including one later on Sunday, Canada (5-2) is in a good position to finish among the first four nations and thus advance to the semi-finals.
A slope to climb
In the team figure skating event, Roman Sadovsky took charge of the men’s free program. He finished fifth and last with 122.60 points. The Japanese Yuma Kagiyama (208.94) dominated.
Moments earlier, a third-place finish by Madeline Schizas in the women’s short program qualifier had allowed Canada to finish in the top five and advance to the final.
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