Canadian long track speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen was unable to repeat his exploits from previous Olympics, having another tough day on the ice Friday in Beijing, this time in the 10,000 meter event.
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The double medalist of the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 settled for eighth place with a time of 13 min 01.39 s, far from his Olympic mark of 12:39.77 established in South Korea. It saw Sweden’s Nils van der Poel set a new world record and race for gold. The winner skated in 12:30.74 to edge Dutchman Patrick Roest (12:44.59) and Italian Davide Ghiotto (12:45.98).
The top Canadian was Graeme Fish, sixth with a time of 12:58.80.
In the 5000m, van der Poel and Roest had also monopolized the first two steps of the podium, while Bloemen found himself 10th. In 2018, the maple leaf athlete won silver in this distance and gold in the 10,000m.
Curling: Canada was not in the game
In women’s curling, the Canadian team suffered its first loss of the Olympic tournament, losing 8-5 against Japan in an unsatisfactory match.
Skip Jennifer Jones and her teammates held a narrow 2-1 lead after the first two ends, but their opponents took advantage of the hammer to pull off a brace in the third. The winners then stole a point in each of the next two encounters to put Canada in trouble.
With a 1-1 record, the Maple Leaf team will look to regroup against defending Olympic champions Sweden later in the day.
Biathlon: Canadians far behind
In the women’s 7.5 kilometer biathlon sprint, Emma Lunder was the top Canadian among the country’s four athletes in the race, the race being won by Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roeiseland.
Thanks to a final time of 20 min 44.30 s, she had the upper hand over the Swedish Elvira Oeberg (+30.90) and the Italian Dorothea Wierer (+37.20). In this event with 89 competitors, Megan Bankes (+3:51.10) finished 77th, while Sarah Beaudry (+4:01.60) and Emily Dickson (+4:06.00) took 80th and 81 squares.