Canadian Olympic silver medalist Laurent Dubreuil of Quebec City, Quebec and Connor Howe of Canmore, Alberta each won World Cup speed skating medals in Heerenveen, Netherlands on the weekend. Dubreuil, who won the silver medal in the men’s 1000 metres at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, won the silver medal in the men’s 500 metres on Saturday, and Howe won the bronze medal in the men’s 1500 metres on Sunday.
In the men’s 500 metres on Saturday, Dubreuil had a time of 34.532 seconds. He was tied with Wataru Morishige of Japan. Tatsuya Shinhama of Japan won the gold medal with a time of 34.384 seconds. Dubreuil reached the podium by 0.11 seconds over Yuma Murakami of Japan, who had a time of 34.64 seconds, and in fourth place.
Dubreuil finished the World Cup standings in first place with 614 points. Shinhama was second with 586 points.
Howe posted a time of 1:44.393. Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 1:43.486. Thomas Krol of the Netherlands won the silver medal with a time of 1:43.797. Howe reached the podium by 0.32 seconds over Bart Swings of Belgium, who had a fourth place time of 1:44.717.
In the men’s 1500 metre World Cup standings, Howe was in second place with 256 points. The World Cup men’s 1500 metre champion was Joey Mantia of the United States with 280 points.
