Laurent Dubreuil would probably have hoped for a better outcome for his last day of competition of the season at the World Sprint Championships in Inzell, Germany. The man who was provisionally first after the first day of the event finished second in the 500m on Friday before finishing in 17e place in the 1000 m, relegating him to third place on the podium overall.
True to form, Dubreuil started the 500m in explosive fashion with a starting time of 9.60 s, the second best of the day. The skater from Lévis then maintained the pace to cross the finish line in 34.47 s, exactly the same time he had recorded the day before.
This time, this time was not enough to finish in first place as the Dutchman Jenning De Boo completed the distance in 34.27 s to win this race, but also to take the lead in the cumulative ranking with a single race to be completed.
What caught the attention, however, was the time of 34.47 seconds from Chinese Zhongyan Ning. A 1000m specialist, Ning had just taken a serious chance of victory by finishing with the same time as Dubreuil over 500m.
In the 1000 m, Dubreuil once again got off to a good start before things got complicated in the last 400 meters where he simply ran out of energy.
The 31-year-old athlete finally took the 17e rank with a time of 1 min 8.84 s. China’s Zhongyan Ning won the 1000m in a track record time of 1min 7.11sec, allowing him to win the world sprint champion title.
“I could have done better, I didn’t have the 500m that I would have liked. By the time I reached the 1000m, I knew the time I needed to do to stay on the podium. But my 1000 was really bad, I had no legs at all, my body no longer wanted to keep up. I opened well, but I broke and I finished even weaker than yesterday (Thursday),” Dubreuil said by videoconference.
“When Ning did 34.47s in the 500m, realistically, I knew my chances of winning were non-existent. I want to be the best, but if I get beaten by someone who is better than me, it doesn’t matter. My goal when I arrived here was not necessarily to win, it was to get a medal and I am very satisfied with my weekend,” he added.
With a haul of six World Cup medals this season, including three victories, in addition to a silver medal in the 500m and another gold in the team sprint at the World Championships in Calgary, Laurent Dubreuil lays it all out likewise a positive assessment of his campaign which was not easy for him.
“I’m happy with my season, I had two major goals this year, a medal at the World Championships and another at the World Sprint. I’ve been going one competition at a time and today (Friday) is the icing on the sundae, it hasn’t happened often in my career to win two World Championship medals in the same year, all this despite injuries and illnesses,” analyzed the Quebecer.
It will now be the turn of Valérie Maltais to participate in the All Distance World Championships near Inzell. She will be in action in the 500m and 3000m on Saturday before tackling the 1500m and 5000m events on Sunday.
As Gregor Jelonek is the only Canadian coach present in Inzell, he will be able to benefit from the help of Laurent Dubreuil for the last races of the weekend, he who will notably help the driver by indicating the lap times to the Canadian skaters.