By Canadian Press

Canada’s Blondin captures world allround speedskating silver medal

Mar 1, 2020 | 7:48 PM

HAMAR, Norway — Ivanie Blondin captured a silver medal in the overall standings at the ISU world allround speedskating championships on Sunday, the punctuation mark on a season that has seen her dominate at multiple distances.

The 29-year-old from Ottawa is the first Canadian woman to reach the overall podium at the event since Christine Nesbitt in 2012. 

Blondin had a cumulative time of 160.462 seconds over four races, 9.38 seconds behind world champion Ireen Wust of the Netherlands.

“I’m pretty happy with the end result and with this weekend overall,” Blondin said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to reach the podium at the world allround championships. My 1500 didn’t go super great, and I almost fell in the 5000, but it’s a learning process. I think I showed consistency to finish second overall, and while today wasn’t great, I’m looking forward to when allrounds come around again.”

Blondin was fourth in the 5,000 metres and fifth in the 1,500 on Sunday, to follow up her second-place finish in the 3,000 and eighth in the 500 on Saturday.  

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Wust was crowned world allround for the seventh time in her career, reaching the podium in three of four distances. Dutch teammate Antoinette de Jong won the bronze. 

Ted-Jan Bloemen of Calgary, Alta., was the top Canadian in the men’s event in seventh. Jordan Belchos of Toronto was a career-best eighth.

Patrick Roest of the Netherlands earned his third consecutive world allround title, ahead of Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Norway and Seitaro Ichinohe of Japan.

The Canadian long-track team concludes its season at next weekend’s ISU World Cup Speed Skating Final in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2020.

The Canadian Press