Canadian speed skater McLean earns bronze for first World Cup medal

INZELL, Germany – Winnipeg’s Heather McLean won her first career individual medal on the long-track speedskating World Cup circuit on Sunday, taking home a bronze in the women’s 500 metres on the last day of the third stage.

Alex Boisvert-Lacroix and Ivanie Blondin each won a silver respectively in the men’s 500 and women’s mass start to bring Canada’s medal todal to five in the weekend-long event. Gilmore Junio won gold and Alexandre St-Jean collected silver on Friday, in the first 500 event.

The national team now has 19 medals for the season, its highest total since it won 21 in 2010-2011.

In the second women’s 500 of the weekend, McLean improved on her fourth-place finish from Friday’s race with a time of 38.02 seconds. She finished behind Sang-Hwa Lee (37.36) of South Korea and Heather Richardson-Bergsma (37.84) of the United States.

“I’m pretty excited about it. My fourth place on Friday was a bit of a surprise,” said McLean. “Today, I had a little bit more pressure. But I knew that if I stayed confident and did what I wanted to do during my race, it could happen.”

On the men’s side, Boisvert-Lacroix, from Sherbrooke, Que., won his second medal of the season with his 500-metre silver.

Poland’s Artur Was won gold in 34.65, followed by Boisvert-Lacroix (34.74) and Kai Verbij (34.80) of the Netherlands.

“Today, the execution was there,” Boisvert-Lacroix said. “The big difference this year, also, is that I’m in great shape. I had the best summer of my life in terms of training.”

In the mass start, Blondin of Ottawa won a medal for a third straight World Cup. She also finished second in Salt Lake City and won bronze at the first stage of the World Cup season in Calgary.

Blondin (8:18.41) finished only two hundredths of a second behind Irene Schouten (8:18.43) of the Netherlands. Do-Young Park of South Korea won bronze.

“This medal hurts because I was really going for gold,” Blondin said. “In the next-to-last straight, I was pushed by a Japanese skater and I think that cost me gold today. At the same time, I really gave it my all in the last straight. Another step and I think I would have nailed it.

“It hurts when you really want gold. Finishing second for the second straight time, it’s not a great feeling but at the same time, I’m happy I earned another medal for Canada.”