Blondin leads medal haul on final day of Four Continents Championship

Ivanie Blondin‘s gold in the mass start highlighted a five-medal day for Team Canada speed skaters at the season-opening Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Hachinhoe, Japan.

Canadians David La Rue and Hayden Mayeur added a double podium in the men’s start, finishing second and third respectively, while Laurent Dubreuil claimed bronze in the 1000m, and the threesome of Connor Howe, Ted-Jan Bloemen, and Hayden Mayeur also claimed bronze in the men’s team pursuit.

Blondin earned her third individual distance medal of the weekend, having also captured bronze in the 1500m and 3000m. In the mass start, she cruised in the final lap outpacing American Mia Manganello, and Ji-Woo Park, to finish with a time of 9:23.28 to win gold.

Canadian Valerie Maltais finished just off the podium in fourth place.

In the men’s mass start, La Rue and Mayeur came out aggressive to chase down New Zealand’s Kierryn Hughes to take the lead. They were eventually passed by Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Chshigolev who finished with a time of 8:22.05, while La Rue (8:22.13) and Mayeur (8:22.77) came away with silver and bronze.

“I am really happy to have reached the podium with Hayden today,” La Rue told Speed Skating Canada. “It’s kind of funny because we were talking strategy before the race and told ourselves that we would stay behind to conserve our energy, but in the end that’s not at all what happened.”

Mayeur reached the podium twice on the day after winning bronze in the team pursuit. Canada finished 4.3 seconds behind the U.S. who won gold.

Finally, Laurent Dubreuil couldn’t catch American Jordan Stolz in the 1000m, but settled for bronze. Stolz set a track record with a time of 1:08.04. Dubreuil finished with a time of 1:09.04.