Canadian Dubreuil captures silver medal in the men’s 500-metre speedskating event

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands – Canadian Laurent Dubreuil captured a silver medal in the men’s 500-metre event Saturday at a World Cup speedskating event.

The native of Levis, Que., posted a time of 34.532 seconds to finish tied with Japan’s Wataru Morishige. Tatsuya Shinhama, also of Japan, won the race in 34.384.

Dubreuil remains atop the 500-metre World Cup standings with 528 points, having won a medal in all nine races over the distance this season. He finished second Saturday despite arriving only 90 minutes before his race.

“I didn’t think I was capable of doing a race like that,” he said. “I thought I would be closer to 10th.

“I only trained once in the past eight days and also had to overcome COVID. My result is absolutely incredible given those circumstances and I am very happy.”

Dubreuil was also 13th in the 1,000-metre race, two places behind Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta.

Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen was fifth in the men’s 5,000-metre event in 6:21.094. He finished the season third in the overall World Cup standings at that distance.

Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin was 10th in the women’s 1,500-metre race.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2022.