Laurent Dubreuil skates to bronze at World Sprint Speed Skating Championships

Laurent Dubreuil has earned his second career medal at the ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, taking bronze on Friday in Inzell, Germany.

Unlike the ISU World Single Distances Championships held in February, where medals were awarded for each individual event, the World Sprint Championships reward consistency over four races — two 500m and two 1000m. The samalog method is used to convert the times achieved in each race to points which are added together to determine the overall results.

Dubreuil was in first place after the first day of competition on Thursday, when he finished first in the first 500m in 34.47 seconds and sixth in the first 1000m in 1:08.31.

On day two, the Canadian was second in the second 500m in 34.47 seconds before placing 17th in the second 1000m in 1:08.84. Those times gave him a total of 137.515 points, which left him 1.67 back of the world champion, China’s Ning Zhongyan, who had won both 1000m races and was second and fifth in the 500m races. Jenning De Boo of the Netherlands took the silver medal, 0.93 ahead of Dubreuil.

Dubreuil previously won silver at the World Sprint Championships in 2020. When they were last held in 2022, he held the lead after the first day of competition before having to withdraw when he tested positive for COVID-19.

Still ahead this weekend in Inzell are the ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships, which are also scored using the samalog method. Women compete in the 500m and 3000m on Saturday before the 1500m and 5000m in Sunday. The men will race the 500m and 5000m on Saturday followed by the 1500m and 10,000m on Sunday. Canada will be represented by Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais, Abigail McCluskey, and Jake Weidemann.