The long-awaited duel delivered on its promises! Opposed to the hyper favorite Jordan Stolz in the last pair, Laurent Dubreuil lived up to his status as a man of special occasions, winning silver in the 500 meters at the World Distance Championships in Calgary, Friday after -noon.
Author of the fastest start of his career, the Quebecer managed one of his best races of his life, but simply could not beat the 19-year-old American rocket, who took gold in 33.69 sec , coming within eight hundredths of the world record.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Jordan Stolz
Dubreuil stopped the clock at 33.95 seconds to win his second consecutive silver medal in his favorite distance. He won gold in 2021.
Rushing into the inside corridor, the 31-year-old Lévisien crossed the first 100 meters in 9.45 seconds, exactly the same time as the prodigy Stolz. As expected, the almost teenager from Wisconsin was able to take advantage of his rival’s slipstream on the opposite straight to enter the last corner at more than 60 km/h. Unlike others, the fluid Stolz admirably resisted the G force that propelled it outwards to exit the curve in front of Dubreuil, maintaining its priority until the end.
The Pole Damian Zurek caused a surprise by snatching bronze thanks to a personal best of 34.11 sec.
Earlier, Canada won two medals in the team pursuit, silver for the women and bronze for the men.
PHOTO JEFF MCINTOSH, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais
Reigning world and Olympic champions, Valérie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann could do nothing to compete with the supersonic time of 2 min 51.20 s achieved by the Dutch Joy Beune, Irene Schouten and Marijke Groenewood in the first pair , giving them 2.83 seconds after the six laps of the track. The consistency of the Canadians, however, allowed them to resist the rapid start of the Japanese Momoka Horikawa, Ayana Sato and Miho Takagi (+3.69 s), who had to settle for bronze.
This title for the powerful Dutch women is a nice revenge on last year, when they were disqualified after having recorded the best time because part of Beune’s ankles were in the open air, which contravened a regulation . Disappointed with its 10e place in the 3000 m the day before, Maltais can now turn to the group start on Saturday, where she will be among the favorites with Blondin.
On the men’s side, Connor Howe, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Hayden Mayeur had an excellent start and recorded the best provisional time of 3 min 36.72 in the first pair. Their time held in the next two starts, with the Dutch and Americans unable to get close. The Canadian trio slipped to third place after the strong finishes of the Italians Andrea Giovannini, Davide Ghiotto and Michele Malfatti, crowned in 3 min 35.00 s, and the Norwegians Sander Eitrem, Peder Kongshaug and Sverre Lunde Pedersen (+1 .07 s), silver medalists.
Gélinas-Beaulieu thus won a second medal after gold the day before in the team sprint with Dubreuil and Anders Johnson. The 31-year-old from Sherbrooke will be in the group start on Saturday.