Laurent Dubreuil and Valérie Maltais both reached their first podium in an individual event this season, at the Long Track Speed Skating World Cup in Beijing. On Saturday, Dubreuil won silver in the 500m, while Maltais was awarded bronze in the mass start, just behind Ontarian Ivanie Blondin.
Dubreuil was only beaten by the Japanese Wataru Morishige, winner of three of the four 500m contested so far.
“This is the best I’ve felt since the start of the year! It wasn’t an easy fall with injuries that broke my rhythm, but there, I felt like the Laurent of the last three or four seasons,” explained the silver medalist in an interview with Sportcom.
The silver medalist had mentioned the day before that he wanted to skate within 34 seconds on Saturday and that’s what he achieved, stopping the clock at 34.81 seconds, 0.12 seconds faster than Morishige (34 .69 s), the man to beat at this distance this season. Yuma Murakami, also from Japan, completed the podium just 1 hundredth of a second behind the Quebecer.
Dubreuil maintained his speed in the second straight and he came out of the last turn almost side by side with his opponent, except that the higher pace of the leader in the World Cup standings made the difference.
“His running style is the same as mine. His start is good, but not exceptional, like me, and that means I start the race without being completely behind, unlike yesterday [Friday]. I was in the race and I stuck to him. »
This start to the calendar reminded him how difficult it is to be a World Cup medalist, but also that his body is getting older.
“It’s a relief and it would have been too even if I had finished fourth with the same time. […] Reconnecting with those times proves that the level is still there. »
In the team sprint, Dubreuil skated alongside David La Rue and Vincent De Haître to finish in eighth place. The lack of cohesion hurt the trio while De Haître was already a few meters behind his teammates at the exit of the first turn. Dubreuil, second runner, even had to slow down so that the Ontarian could get a little closer to him in order to benefit from the suction effect.
“It was a complete failure! We just had poor group execution,” concluded Dubreuil with his usual frankness, adding that they will have to review their strategy.
Dutchwoman Marijke Groenewoud was the main entertainer in the women’s mass start race. In the tenth round, out of a total of 16, she broke away with the Chinese Aoyu Chen. The duo quickly built a lead of around thirty meters. Chen was quickly taken down and the Dutchwoman’s gap increased to 100 meters. No one in the peloton really took the initiative to organize the chase, which meant that Groenewoud was able to take the time to fully celebrate his victory.
Ontarian Ivanie Blondin won the peloton sprint for second place, followed by Valérie Maltais.
“She’s gotten far away, huh? » said Maltais with a laugh at the start of the interview, in reference to the winner.
The skater from La Baie was especially proud of the way she got her hands on the second medal of her career in this event, after a silver obtained in Poland last season.
“I have never found myself in this position in a sprint and I was even surprised that no one overtook me. […] With two laps to go, I was like, “ok, be patient and wait! ”Usually I go because I don’t trust myself and I rely more on my endurance than my sprint. I managed to place myself well and it paid off in the end. »
Maltais won her Polish medal in a breakaway, unlike Saturday where she won bronze in the peloton sprint. This will have a considerable impact on her as she explains.
“Honestly, I didn’t have all the confidence in the world coming into the race. And by doing a race like today [Saturday], it can give me some. »
We ask him: is that more important than a bronze medal?
“Yes, absolutely! »
In the other races of the day, we should mention that Alberta’s Ted-Jan Bloemen placed fourth in the 5000m and Quebec’s Béatrice Lamarche finished 10th in group B of the 1000m.
The final events of the Beijing World Cup will take place on Sunday.
