Canadians Wotherspoon and Klassen lose records, Canada win’s three more medals

CALGARY – No world record is made to last.

A pair of Canadians had their records broken on Sunday at the ISU World Cup speedskating event.

Jeremy Wotherspoon’s record time of 34.03 seconds in the men’s 500-metre race, set on Nov. 9, 2007, was bested by Russia’s Kulizhnikov in a flat 34.00 seconds. Meanwhile, Cindy Klassen’s time of one minute 51.79 seconds in the women’s 1,500 set on Nov. 20, 2005, was outdone by Brittney Bowe of the United States in a time of 1:51.59 seconds.

“I’m very excited that I broke this long standing record and I’m very happy and glad that I could do this,” said Kulizhnikov with the help of a translator.

After the race Wotherspoon — now a speed skating coach in Norway — congratulated Kulizhnikov on his accomplishment, but admitted it hurt a bit to see his time beaten.

“Of course it’s a bit disappointing to lose a record that I’ve had for awhile,” said Wotherspoon. “Even if you’ve only had it (a record) for a day, it’s still disappointing, but it was nice to be here to see it at least.”

The race wasn’t all bad news for Canada, as three men finished hot on Kulizhnikov’s heels in second, third and fourth place.

William Dutton of Humboldt, Sask. added a silver medal to the bronze he earned on Friday, setting a new personal best in the 500, flying around the track in 34.25 seconds.

“It’s been an unbelievable weekend for me, my previous best was seventh and that was in a World Championship,” said Dutton. “To better that twice after considering retiring is pretty amazing.”

Just behind Dutton were teammates, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix of Sherbrooke, Que., and Calgary’s Gilmore Junio, who tied at 34.30 seconds — forcing officials to look at their times to a thousandth of a second, with Boisvert-Lacroix finishing ahead by four thousandths of a second.

“It was really fast today, Gilmore Junio just before me did 34.30,” said Boisvert-Lacroix. “I had a solid start, my best start ever and I did a pretty good race overall, so I’m happy with it.”

Bowe narrowly missed a record time on Saturday and found some extra incentive Sunday en route to setting the new record in the 1500.

“Falling just short of the gold and world record yesterday definitely put some extra motivation in my body,” said Bowe. “I channelled a lot of that energy into good skating, good race tactics and I knew I had to skate perfect to end up on top and to be able to get that world record is quit an honour.”

Klassen and Canada’s Christine Nesbitt are two skaters Bowe looked up to as she transitioned from inline skate to speedskating in 2011.

“Cindy’s in a class of her own, she’s a legend, so to be able to get that is quit an honour,” said Bowe.

Also, Canada’s Ivanie Blondin’s took bronze in the women’s mass start Sunday. She skated near the front of the pack for most of the race before she was edged at the line by Bo-Reum Kim of South Korea and Irene Schouten of the Netherlands.

“The last lap I was pushed on the outside and I kind of had to make a decision then and there,” Said Blondin. “I either go or not go, so I decided to go and take a chance of going a little bit too soon.”

Blondin, from Ottawa, acknowledged that it might have been a little too soon to make a break, although she’s not sure if she would have been on the podium at all if she waited.

Other Canadian results from Sunday’s action, Jordan Belchos was 15th and Robert Watson finished 16th in the men’s mass start. The race was won by Bart Swings of Belgium.

In the women’s 500, Heather McLean was 10th, while Marsha Hudey finished 17th. The race was won by China’s Hong Zhang in a time of 36.94 seconds.

And in the men’s 1,500, Vincent De Haitre was 16th. The race was won by Denis Yuskov in a time of 1:41.88 seconds.