Graeme Fish’s world record performance leads great World Speed Skating Championship for Canada

Graeme Fish (Twitter)

Anyway you look at it, this was simply a sensational World Single Distance Speed Skating Championship for Team Canada. In four days of competition, the Canadians came through with nine medals, third only to the Netherlands and Russia.

After getting two medals in the opening day of competition in the men’s 5000 metres on Thursday, what Graeme Fish of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan accomplished on Friday in the men’s 10000 metres was simply magical. Fish set the world record in the distance with a time of 12 minutes, 33.86 seconds.

Fish in fact led a 1-2 Canadian finish in the men’s 10000 metres as Canadian Olympic gold medalist Ted Jan-Bloemen of Calgary, Alberta, won the silver medal with a time of 12:45.01. Bloemen won the gold medal in the men’s 10000 metres at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Bloemen had the previous world record of 12:36.50, which was also set in Salt Lake City, during a World Cup on November 21, 2015. In the men’s 10000 metres on Friday, Patrick Beckert of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 12:47.93. Fish won a medal by 14.59 seconds over Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands and Bloemen won a medal by 3.44 seconds. Bergsma had a time of 12:48.45.

In the women’s team pursuit on Friday, the Canadian team of Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann of Ottawa, Ontario and Canadian Olympic silver medalist Valerie Maltais of La Baie, Quebec won the bronze medal with a time of 2:53.62. They reached the podium by 0.3 seconds over Russia, who had a fourth place time of 2:53.92. Japan won the gold medal with a world record time of 2:50.76 and the Netherlands won silver with a time of 2:52.65. Maltais won her Olympic silver medal in the women’s 3000 metre short track speed skating relay at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. 

In the men’s 1000 metres on Saturday, Laurent Dubreuil of Quebec City, Quebec won the bronze medal with a time of 1:06.76. He reached the podium by 0.24 seconds over Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway, who had a fourth place time of 1:07.00. Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia won the gold medal with a world record time of 1:05.69 and Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands won the silver medal with a time of 1:06.73. Dubreuil saw his position upgraded from fourth to third when Thomas Krol of the Netherlands was disqualified for impeding another athlete.

On Sunday, Team Canada was not done. Blondin won the gold medal in the women’s mass start, while Jordan Belchos of Toronto, Ontario won the silver medal and Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu of Sherbrooke, Quebec won the bronze medal in the men’s mass start. The medals for Fish, Bloemen, Blondin, Belchos, Gelinas-Beaulieu, Weidemann, Maltais and Dubreuil, will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. 

 

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