Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa, Ontario, and Laurent Dubreuil of Quebec City, Quebec each won their second medal for Canada on Saturday at the 2021 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Blondin won silver in the women’s mass start, and Dubreuil won bronze in the men’s 1000 metres. On Friday, Dubreuil won gold in the men’s 500 metres, and Blondin was part of the Canadian team that won silver in the women’s team pursuit.
In the women’s mass start on Saturday, Blondin placed behind gold medalist Marijke Groenewoud, and ahead of bronze medalist Irene Schouten of the Netherlands. This was the fifth time Blondin has earned a medal in the women’s mass start at the World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. She previously won gold in 2016 in Kolomna, Russia, and in 2020 in Salt Lake City. Blondin also won silver in 2015 in Heerenveen, and in 2019 in Inzell, Germany.
In the men’s 1000 metres, Dubreuil had a third-place time of 1:08.569. Kai Verbij of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 1:08.052. Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia won the silver medal with a time of 1:08.313. Dubreuil earned a medal by 0.135 seconds over Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway, who had a fourth-place time of 1:08.704.
Team Canada finished the 2021 World Speed Skating Championships with five medals, the third most among all countries. The Netherlands led with 18 medals, and Russia (known as the Russian Skating Union) was second with 11 medals. The Saturday medals for Blondin and Dubreuil will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
