Ivanie Blondin captured a second gold medal this weekend and Laurent Dubreuil won a second bronze medal at the Long Track Speed Skating World Cup in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa won the women’s mass start event. Blondin remained in the peloton throughout the race and narrowly edged the Dutchman Marijke Groenewood.
“I’m really confident in my form right now and it shows on the ice,” the Ottawa athlete said at a press conference Sunday night.
Norwegian Sofie Karoline Haugen finished third.
The day before, Blondin had won the women’s team pursuit with her teammates Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais.
“We’re really strong right now and I’m very excited for the games,” said Blondin of the Winter Olympics which will start in two months.
Laurent Dubreuil of Lévis clocked 34.053 seconds in the men’s 500m. He conceded only 56 thousandths of a second to the time of the winner, the Japanese Wataru Morishige, and five hundredths of a second to that of the Russian Artem Arefyev.
It was his second bronze in the 500m this weekend in Salt Lake City, and his sixth over that distance so far this World Cup season – he had climbed the podium on two occasions in Tomaszow. Mazowiecki, Poland, and Stavanger, Norway.
A few weeks before flying to Beijing, Dubreuil seems to be in full control of his means.
“What gives me the most pleasure is my ability to do a good race every time and even if I make small mistakes, I am able to be very competitive and win medals”, underlined the skater in press conference.
“It was a really good race, I’m really happy with the result,” he added.
The United States set a world record winning the men’s team pursuit and the Netherlands won gold, silver and bronze in the men’s 1,000 meters.
Earlier today, in the women’s 1500m, the Japanese Miho Takagi and Ayano Sato won the double, ahead of the Dutch Antoinette de Jong.
Ivanie Blondin was Canada’s top skater by virtue of her 13th place finish. Her compatriots Isabelle Weidemann, from Ottawa, and Valérie Maltais, from La Malbaie, finished 15th and 20th, in order.