While the Canadian’s have found relatively little success in the sprint distances, the long-distance and team events are a different story.
By: Maria Dalton
Photo: Schaats Foto’s
While the Canadians found lots of success last season in the sprint distances, it is Canada’s long distance skaters that are leading the way as we enter a new Olympic cycle. With a cohort of young skaters making their way up through the ranks, the country’s skating future is bright.
The trio of Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin, and Keri Morrison has been incredibly consistent this season and the ladies team pursuit team is ranked third overall in the World cup rankings. The men’s team pursuit team is ranked fifth overall. The men’s team sprint team is sitting just outside the top-3 in fourth – at odds with the Canadian’s performance last season where they won every race they participated in. On the women’s side, the Canadians are ranked fifth overall.
Weidemann and Blondin lead the pack
Isabelle Weidemann, who was pegged as one of our skaters to watch this season, has been the shining star of the Canadian team so far this season. After her stellar performance at the Canadian trials in October where she captured three Canadian titles, Weidemann has continued to shine on the World cup circuit. After a slow start in Obihiro where she finished 9th in the 3000m, Weidemann captured gold in Tomakomai and silver in Poland and Heerenveen. She currently sits atop the World cup standings with 200 points, followed closely behind by Visser (192), and Sablikova (190).
Ivanie Blondin has been integral to the Canadian’s success in the team pursuit season. Aside from her successes in the team events, she has found herself just off the podium on numerous occasions. Blondin finished in 5th in the first mass start race of the season, before capturing the silver medal a week later in Tomakomai. Blondin is currently ranked 7th overall in the mass start in the World cup rankings. One of the most noteworthy performances in the distance races so far this season was Valerie Maltais’s performance in Poland. Maltais officially made the switch over from short track this season and captured her first medal in long track – silver in the 5000m (B group).
Success at the Neo-Senior World Cup
At the Neo-Senior world cup in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland the Canadians captured seventeen medals – seven gold, five silver, and five bronze. Beatrice Lamarche, Tyson Langelaar and Abigail McCluskey each captured four individual medals a piece. Jake Weidemann captured two while Hayden Mayeur and Noemie Fiset each captured one individual medal. The performance of some of Canada’s rising stars at the Neo-Senior world cup shows just how strong the next generation of Canadian skaters are as we enter a new Olympic cycle.
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, follow our Facebook page, our Instagram account and our Twitter account for daily news and results about speed skating.
0 commentaires:
Publier un commentaire