Ottawa’s Blondin wins silver in mass start at World Cup speedskating meet

BERLIN – Canada’s Ivanie Blondin won the silver medal in the women’s mass start event at a speedskating World Cup meet on Sunday.

The Ottawa skater has won a medal in the event at all three World Cup stops this season, winning gold in Japan and bronze in South Korea before Sunday’s silver-medal performance.

Blondin currently sits fifth in the overall women’s standings.

Irene Schouten won the mass start in a time of eight minutes 32.82 seconds, followed closely by Blondin at 8:32.94 and Ye Jin Jun of South Korea at 8:33.37.

Blondin felt she lost the race with a bad final turn.

“I’m kicking myself in the head a little bit about the last turn. I should have stayed tight,” said Blondin. “But I’m always happy with a medal no matter what colour it is. It would have been nice if it was gold, but silver is always good too. I’m bringing another one home for Canada.”

Regina’s Kali Christ was sixth.

It was one of two medals for Canada on the day, as Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., won bronze in the men’s 500-metre sprint.

Artur Was of Poland completed a sweep of the two sprint events on the weekend, finishing in 35.04 seconds to beat Espen Aarnes Hvammen of Norway by .02 seconds. Dubreuil was .05 seconds back in third.

“Although I’m a little bit disappointed after letting a chance for victory slip because of my very bad start, I’m quite satisfied with my overall performance,” said Dubreuil, who has also won a medal at three straight World Cup events. “Coming back like I did, after having the second slowest start in the A group, showed me that I have a level of physical and mental strength that I didn’t even know I had. I don’t say this often, but I surprised myself today.”

Calgary’s Gilmore Junio was 14th.

Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea clinched the women’s race in 37.96 and has won five of six sprints this season. Heather Richardson of the United States was second in 38.07 and Nao Kodaira of Japan third in 38.11.

Jan Szymanski of Poland won the men’s 1,500, while Olympic champion Ireen Wust added the women’s 1,500 victory to the 3,000 win at the start of the three-day meet.

Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was sixth in the men’s 1,500, while Calgary’s Alec Janssens was 18th.

Christ was 14th in the women’s 1,500.

In other results, Robert Watson of Whitby, Ont., was fifth in the men’s mass start, while Winnipeg native Tyler Derraugh was 18th.

— With files from The Associated Press.