HAMAR, NORWAY – Valérie Maltais was Canada’s top performer in the Allround competition at this year’s World Speed Skating Championships, finishing the two-day event in 10th position.
Maltais cracked the top-10 in all three of her distances, finishing eighth in the 500m (39.49) and ninth in both the 1500m (4:08.23) and 3000m (1:58.09). Those results helped the native of Saguenay earn the best finish of her career at this competition, topping her 17th place finishes from 2019 and 2020.
Teammate Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.), who was crowned vice-champion the last time this competition was held in 2020, finished the weekend one position behind Maltais in 11th. The double medalist from Beijing 2022 was sixth in the 500m (38.97) and 11th in the 3000m (4:10.73) and 1500m (1:58.74). Meanwhile, Lindsey Kent (Winnipeg, Man.) finished 16th in the overall rankings.
Topping the women’s podium on Sunday was Dutch skater Irene Schouten (158.974), who won her eighth career World Allround title. She was joined by Miho Takagi of Japan (+3.31) and Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands (+8.24).
Jordan Belchos (Toronto, Ont.) was Canada’s top male skater at the competition, ranking 17th overall. Teammate Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary, Alta.) finished 20th overall.
Bringing home the men’s title was Sweden’s Nils van der Poel (148.696), who finished ahead of Patrick Roest of Netherlands (+22.80) and Bart Swings of Belgium (+30.44).
The international long track season comes to an end next week with the ISU World Cup Final in Heerenveen, Netherlands. CBC Sports will have live streaming and broadcast coverage of the competition on both Saturday and Sunday.
Results
- Ivanie Blondin: 10th overall; 6th in 500m; 11th in 3000m; 11th in 1500m
- Valérie Maltais: 11th overall; 8th in 500m; 9th in 3000m; 9th in 1500m
- Lindsey Kent: 16th overall; 16th in 500m; 17th in 3000m; 16th in 1500m
- Ted-Jan Bloemen: 17th overall; 17th in 500m; 16th in 5000m; DNS in 1500m
- Jordan Belchos: 20th overall; 20th in 500m; 13th in 5000m; 17th in 1500m
