(Tomaszów Mazowiecki) The Canadian long track speed skating team kicked off the first of two back-to-back World Cup speed skating stops in Poland on Friday with two fourth-place finishes thanks to Connor Howe and men’s team pursuit squad.
Howe is Canada’s top-ranked individual distance athlete on Friday, finishing just off the podium with a fourth-place finish in the 1,500 meters, under a time of one minutes 47.81 seconds.
The Dutchman Kjeld Nuis won in 1 min 46.71 s, ahead of the Norwegian Peder Kongshaug and his compatriot from the Netherlands Patrick Roest (+0.91).
Although he didn’t medal this time around, Howe still leads the World Cup standings in the 1,500 meters with 227 points. The 22-year-old skater is five points ahead of his main rival, Nuis (222), with one race to go.
The Canmore athlete then teamed up with Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Hayden Mayeur for the men’s team pursuit.
The Canadians were in position to win a medal after the first lap of an eight-round race, but they couldn’t maintain their pace and had to settle for fourth place, 3.21 seconds off the time posted by the Norwegians (3 min 42.70 s), winners of the event.
The United States finished a close second, while the Netherlands (+1.26) took third place.
Canada ends the World Cup season in third place overall in the men’s team pursuit (137 points) – behind the Netherlands (140) and Norway (156) – after recording a second, fourth and fifth place.
Among the women, the three long distance specialists, namely Isabelle Weidemann, Valérie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin, all took place in the top-8 of the 3000 meters.
Weidemann (4:08.91) was the top Canadian with fifth place, while Maltais (4:11.25) and Blondin (4:13.16) finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
Norwegian Ragne Wiklund took gold (4 min 05.96 s), narrowly ahead of Czech Martina Sáblíková (+0.08), while Dutch Marijke Groenewoud (+1.22) finished third.
Tomaszów Mazowiecki’s World Cup of Speed Skating continues Saturday with the men’s 500m and 5000m events, as well as the women’s 1500m and team pursuit.