Quebecers David La Rue and Laurent Dubreuil contributed to Canada’s haul of five additional medals at the conclusion of the Four Continents Championships on Sunday.
La Rue took the silver medal in the men’s mass start, at the end of which his compatriot Hayden Mayeur took third place. Ivanie Blondin won the women’s event, while Laurent Dubreuil was decorated with bronze in the 1000 meters.
In the team pursuit, Connor Howe, Ted-Jan Bloemen and Mayeur won the bronze medal with a time of three minutes 47.43 seconds. The three men skated together in this event for the first time, but were beaten only by the United States and the Japanese.
“Ted-Jan is back in the lineup for these Four Continents Championships and the upcoming World Cups, so it was about finding our feet as a team skating together,” Mayeur explained, according to a press release from Speed Skating Canada. All things considered, we weren’t that far from being competitive for first place. »
At the mass start, La Rue (8:22.13) was in first position when starting the last lap, finally being beaten by the Kazakh Vitaliy Chshigolev.
“There was an attack quite quickly and the peloton wasn’t reacting, so I started to accelerate on the outside and I looked at Hayden, then we left,” commented La Rue. Overall, super happy to be able to conclude this first weekend in Asia with a medal. I’m really excited to build on that in the mass start, but also in my individual distances. »
For Blondin, who finished the 16-lap women’s race in 9:23.28, ahead of American Mia Manganello (9:23.36) and South Korean Ji-Woo Park (9:23.39), it It was a third individual medal in this competition after bronze in the 1500m and 3000m.
In the men’s 1000m, Dubreuil obtained his second individual medal. He covered the distance in 1:09.52, behind American Jordan Stolz and Japan’s Tatsuya Shinhama. Howe finished in fourth place.
The maple leaf therefore totaled 12 medals, including three gold and three silver, at the Four Continents Championships.
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