Quebecer Laurent Dubreuil won the 500-meter long track speed skating World Cup on Sunday in Heerenveen in the Netherlands.
In the second event of the weekend over 500 meters, the athlete from Lévis finished in fourth place, with a time of 34.636 seconds. Dubreuil was second on Saturday.
Dubreuil’s performance on Sunday added 86 points to his overall standings total. He thus completes the 10 stages of the World Cup with a grand total of 614 points, 28 more than the Japanese Tatsuya Shinhama, winner of the two races over 500 meters at the end of the week.
Japan’s Wataru Morishige finished the season third overall with 555 points. Morishige finished third in Sunday’s race, just two thousandths of a second ahead of Dubreuil.
Just a few days ago, Dubreuil didn’t even know if he would be able to participate in the weekend races. Here he is champion of the World Cup for the first time in his career.
The incredible journey of the Quebec skater began when he learned that he had contracted COVID-19, during the last World Sprint Championships, a little over a week ago.
After submitting to his mandatory quarantine, Dubreuil had declared as the weekend approached that he simply wanted to have fun. He also said that “only a miracle would put him in the top four”.
Because, in addition to not having been able to train in recent days, the 29-year-old athlete had to take a flight from Norway to the Netherlands on Saturday morning, before heading by bus to the oval of Thialf . In short, a crazy day.
“I arrived an hour and a half before my race. I didn’t think I would be able to do a race like that; I expected to finish tenth. My result is absolutely incredible under the circumstances and I’m really happy,” said Dubreuil on Saturday.