By Canadian Press

Weidemann leads Canada to five-medal day at final World Cup speedskating stop

Mar 7, 2020 | 11:39 AM

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands — Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann won gold in the women’s 3,000-metres as Canada picked up five medals on the opening day of the ISU World Cup Final speedskating competition.

Weidemann finished in a time of three minutes 59.759 seconds on Saturday to finish ahead of Antionette de Jong of the Netherlands and Natalia Voronina of Russia.

As a result of the gold medal at the final meet of the season, Weidemann moved past Ivanie Blondin and finished second in the discipline’s overall standings.

Ottawa’s Blondin, who was fifth on Saturday, finished third overall. Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic finished fourth in the final race of the season to hang on to the overall title with 357 points, just four more than Weidemann.

Two Canadians made the podium in the men’s 5,000 metres, with Graeme Fish of Moose Jaw, Sask., finishing second in 6:12.83 and Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen third in 6:13.721.

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Patrick Roest of the Netherlands was first in 6:11.152 and also picked up the overall title in the event, with Fish finishing third overall and Bloemen fourth.

Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., picked up a pair of silver medals.

He took silver in the men’s 500 in 34.416 seconds, nine-hundredths of a second behind Japan’s Tatsuya Shinhama. Dubreuil was sixth overall heading into Sunday’s final 500 race of the season.

Dubreuil followed with silver in the men’s 1,000 with a time of 1:08.118. Thomas Krol of the Netherlands won gold. Dubreuil finished up third in the 1,000 standings behind Krol and Dutchman Kai Verbij, who was third in Saturday’s race.

Competition continues with six races on Sunday, when Blondin will enter the women’s mass start race with a 112-point lead over Japan’s Nana Takagi for top spot in the standings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press