Canadian Junio wins bronze in 500-metres at speed skating World Cup

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands – Calgary’s Gilmore Junio won bronze and Heather McLean of Winnipeg placed sixth in the first 500-metre races of competition on the opening day of the World Cup final on Friday.

Junio raced to third with a time of 35.123 seconds, edging out Mika Poutala of Finland in fourth position by five thousandths of a second. Russian skater Ruslan Murashov won gold while Ronald Mulder of the Netherlands took silver.

“It was nerve-racking being in the last pair with all eyes watching, but I wanted to approach today as just another day of training”, said Junio, who was racing against Alex Boisvert-Lacroix in the sixth and last pair. “I have a tendency to get myself worked up for bigger races and psych myself out. In training I have a good level of execution and I brought that to my race today.”

Junio is third in this season’s World Cup ranking with 561 points.

Alexandre St-Jean (35.18) of Quebec City was seventh, William Dutton (35.31) of Humboldt, Sask., was ninth, Boisvert-Lacroix (35.52) of Sherbrooke, Que., was 11th and Laurent Dubreuil (35.56) of Levis, Que., was 12th.

On the women’s side, McLean finished sixth with a time of 38.28 seconds. McLean is seventh in the overall 500-metre World Cup ranking with 463 points in her break-out year on the international circuit.

“My race was consistent with training,” McLean said. “I had one mistake going into the last corner, but overall it was a good race. My goal was to be extra aggressive in the backstretch and I accomplished that. I’m satisfied with my race, but I’m also looking to take what I learned today to be better tomorrow.”

The final 500-metre races of the year will take place on Saturday for the women and on Sunday for the men.