For the third time this season, long track speed skater Laurent Dubreuil took sixth place in a 500m World Cup on Saturday in Norway. A race “like its autumn” which does not meet the expectations of the vice-world champion.
The Quebecer completed the distance in 35.05 seconds at the Stavanger arena, 4 tenths of a second faster than the Japanese Wataru Morishige. The latter continued his domination in this event by signing a fourth victory in five outings since the start of the campaign. A hundredth of a second separated him from the Chinese Tingyu Gao, silver medalist. Japan’s Tatsuya Shinhama (0.06 seconds) received bronze.
“Sixth places is not something that satisfies me. It’s not catastrophic, far from it! I keep my fourth place in the general classification, but in recent years I have gotten used to more,” Laurent Dubreuil shared with Sportcom.
“It’s not bad, but I feel bad!” It takes me a near-perfect race if I want to compete for medals right now and technically I’m not strong enough. I make a lot more mistakes than usual. »
According to him, one element that is lacking during his performances is the speed he generates in his turn. This aspect, which he considers to be his greatest strength, allows him to overcome a slower start than his competitors usually.
“I have a lot of work ahead of me to regain this speed that I almost took for granted in recent years,” he said. I always had one of the best laps in the world and that’s not the case right now. It’s a little discouraging, but I know it’s likely to come back. »
Silver medalist in Beijing two weeks ago, the athlete from Lévis won five medals in six World Cups last season. He feels he has less room for maneuver this year and puts more pressure on himself before his races.
The problem is that when aiming for “great races,” athletes generally make more mistakes. Dubreuil is no exception and stands out when he relaxes. He knows this very well, which adds to his frustration.
“I am capable of saying all that coldly, of explaining that it makes no sense to impose exceptional races on me! I should just aim for a good race, but that’s easy to say when you’re not in the action. I’m 31, I have experience! I’ve done a hundred World Cups and I still make this mistake. As if I’m not learning and that’s what I find discouraging,” shared the Quebecer, adding that the holiday season will do him the greatest good.
Also in action on Saturday, Valérie Maltais took part in the 1500m, where she placed 11th with a time of 1 min 59.47 sec.
The Japanese Miho Takagi completed her race in 1 min 55.87 s to win ahead of the Dutch Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong (1 min 56.95 s) and Marijke Groenewoud (1 min 56.99 s).
Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin (1 min 58.39 s) took seventh place, while Quebec’s Béatrice Lamarche (2 min 1.97 s) is in 10th place in group B.
