Dutch and Canadian Glory in Salt Lake City on Day 4

On the final day of the 2020 edition of the World Single Distance Championships, skaters took to the ice to determine this year’s world champions in both the 1500m and Mass Start in front of hordes of fans at the Utah Olympic Oval.

By Maria Dalton

Photo by Maria Dalton

Double Dutch in the 1500m

In the women’s 1500m it was a day of personal bests as 16 out of 24 skaters recorded a PB on the distance. The top skater on the day was the Netherlands legendary Ireen Wust who finished with a time of 1:50.925 to successfully defend her world championship crown. A pair of Russian skaters Evgenila Lalenkova and Elizaveta Kazelina rounded off the podium to continue to add to the Russian squad’s medal tally from these championships. Lalenkova finished with a time of 1:51.137 while her compatriot Kazeline finished with a time 1:51.418 – both PBs.  Canadians Ivanie Blonding, Isabelle Weidemann and Abigail McCluskey finished in seventh, 16th and 19th respectively – with Weidemann and McCluskey recording new PBs.

On the men’s side it was Kjeld Nuis who claimed the top spot on the podium with his time of 1:41.664 – nearly a second shorter than his world record time from last year on the same ice during the world cup final. Nuis finished a disappointing fifth at last year’s Single Distance Championships in Germany and is clearly a big fan of the oval here in Salt Lake City. Fellow Dutchman Thomas Krol finished just behind him with a time of 1:41.735 to take the silver medal. The United States’ Joey Mantia rounded off the podium with his PB time of 1:42.164. This medal is the first medal of Mantia’s career at the WSD in the 1500m, and he is also the only American to have captured a medal at these championships. Canadians Antoine Genlinas-Beaulieu, Tyson Langelaar and Connor Howe finished in 7th, 9th and 19th respectively.

Canadians steal the show in the Mass Start

As the 2020 edition of the World Single Distance Championships wound down there were only two races left on the program – the men’s and women’s mass start. With the women’s group up first it was Ivanie Blondin who came out on top to capture the Mass Start crown after falling just short last year. Following close behind her was Korea’s Bo-Reum Kim who was a mere 2 tenths of a second short of being crowned world champion. Dutch skater Irene Schouten rounded out the top three – a disappointing finish compared to her first-place finish last year.

In the men’s mass start it was Dutchman Jorrit Bergsma who came out on top ahead of two Canadian skaters – Jordan Belchos and Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu. The Dutch skater finished just of the podium two days prior in the 10000m and is surely happy to have been crowned world champion in the MS. Coming in second was Jordan Belchos, who won his first mass start gold this season in Nagano, finished just behind Bergsma to bring home the silver. Rounding off the podium was Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu – a surprising result for the French Canadian who has never found himself within the top-10 in a mass start final before. With Gelinas-Beaulieu’s medal the Canadians managed to come away with half the medals on offer in the Mass Start.

Many skaters now have a short break before heading to Norway for the joint world Sprint and Allround world championships in two weeks.

You can browse the full results HERE

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.