HEERENVEEN, Netherlands – Alex Boisvert-Lacroix won a silver medal in the men’s 500 metres at the long-track speedskating World Cup at Thialf Oval while Canadian teammate Ivanie Blondin took the bronze in the women’s mass start.

Boisvert-Lacroix, from Sherbrooke, Que., was second in 34.76 seconds, just behind Russia’s Ruslan Murashov (34.67). Espen Aarnes Hvammen of Norway was third in 34.86.

World record holder Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia lost his first 500-metre race of the season when he fell in a corner after Boisvert-Lacroix put him under pressure with a fast start.

“I was off like a rocket,” Boisvert-Lacroix said. “It was my best opening ever and I went into the first turn in the right way, but then I saw Pavel fall in front of me, a few metres away from me. It surprised me a bit and I even had to hold back a little on the crossover to let Pavel go by in front of me to avoid coming into contact with him.

“But after that I was able to get back in gear and with the help of my coach, I was able to refocus on my race. Under the circumstances I’m quite happy about ending up on the podium.”

Japanese skater Misaki Oshigiri won the women’s mass start in eight minutes 22.80 seconds. Dutch skater Carien Kleibeuker was second in 8:23.23 and Blondin, from Ottawa, was third in 8:27.96.

Heather Richardson-Bergsma edged American teammate Brittany Bowe to win the women’s 1,500 metres. Joey Mantia made it a U.S. double by winning the men’s 1,500 to take the overall World Cup lead.

Richardson-Bergsma and Bowe have won or finished second in all four of the World Cup season’s 1,500 races and stand level atop the standings. Bowe sent Richardson-Bergsma into second place in Saturday’s 1,000.

In a head-to-head race in the final pairing, Richardson-Bergsma won in 1:55.29 seconds, 0.15 seconds ahead of Bowe. Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands was third and Kali Christ of Regina was 16th.

Mantia won his first World Cup 1,500 of the season in 1:44.26, leaving Denis Yuskov of Russia second and Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands third. Vincent De Haitre of Cumberland, Ont., was ninth.

Yu Jing of China won the women’s 500 in 37.84, just three hundredths of a second ahead of Richardson-Bergsma. Zhang Hong was third and Heather McLean of Winnipeg was 10th.

Arjan Stroetinga of the Netherlands won the men’s mass start ahead of Italy’s Fabio Francolini and South Korea’s Seung-Hoon Lee. Toronto’s Jordan Belchos was seventh.

———

With files from The Canadian Press.