Valérie Maltais overcame an additional obstacle in continuing her strong start to the long track speed skating World Cup season on Sunday in Beijing. The day after his third place in the mass start, the athlete from La Baie took fifth place in the 3000m event, despite his state of health which was not optimal.
The only Canadian medal of the day was won by Ivanie Blondin, Brooklyn McDougall and Maddison Pearman who took second place on the podium in the team sprint. They finished 1.02s behind the winners, the Dutch.
It was with a cough and symptoms of a cold that Maltais woke up Sunday morning. The reason ? A virus that has been running through the Canadian team for several days. Although she already coughed a little on Saturday, it did not affect her. This was not the case on Sunday.
“The more the day went on, the less well I felt. I would have hoped otherwise, but still, I focused on my execution and the things I needed to work on at this 3000m. In the end, my time isn’t super fast and I finished in fifth place, so that’s a good thing! Despite these small health difficulties, it was a good weekend,” Maltais commented in a statement sent by his national federation.
The Quebecer (4 min 9.51 s) finished one place ahead of her compatriot Isabelle Weidmann (4 min 9.84 s). Maltais was 6.10 seconds behind the winner, Norwegian Ragne Wiklund (4:03.41).
At this same distance, but in group B, Béatrice Lamarche (4:13.57), from Quebec, placed seventh.
Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu (1 min 12.54 s) finished 20th in the 1000 m, while exceptionally, Laurent Dubreuil (1 min 9.69 s) skated this distance in group B, where he placed third . His time would have put him 11th if he had skated from Group A.
Gélinas-Beaulieu’s 1000m had an impact on his mass start race contested later in the day. Seventeenth in the standings, the original Sherbrooke was unable to score points in the final sprint or the intermediate sprints.
“I fell to my knees once and got up, but it burned away the little cartridges I had left to get back into the pack. Once at the final sprint, I tried to overtake from the outside, but I was carried away, the skater explained to Sportcom. Next time, when I have the legs, I’m going to run more from the front, because there’s a lot of struggle behind and you’re struggling to maintain your position. This will help me keep my place for the final sprint. »
Gélinas-Beaulieu added that he too was not spared by the virus.
“I feel really sick and cold. I have difficulty recovering after races and my 1000m two hours before the mass start burned a lot more cartridges than I thought. The [World Cup] break comes at the right time. I no longer remembered that the World Cups in Asia were so demanding on the body when you get sick. »
Maltais, Gélinas and several of their teammates will head to Spain to rest and accumulate kilometers on a road bike before heading further north for the next World Cup which will take place in Norway at the beginning of December.
