In a sport that comes easy for some given the fact we love to skate in Canada, it’s not the normal ice skate that everyone uses.
If you haven’t taken it up or even tried it you should at lease think about putting on a pair of these shoes with a blade that looks like a knife, but does the trick.
Gilmore Junio of Calgary won bronze in Sunday’s 500m race, which by the same token earned him a spot at the World Single Distance Championships, on the last day of ISU World Cup Long Track #5 held in Stavanger, Norway.
In the second 500m event of the weekend, Gilmore Junio skated to a time of 34.86 seconds, two days after missing a podium result by one hundredth of a second in that same distance.
Russian skaters Pavel Kulizhnikov (34.52) and Ruslan Murashov (34.78) respectively collected gold and silver, as they did in Friday’s 500m.
Gilmore Junio is now qualified for the World Single Distance Championships February 11-14 held in Kolomna, Russia.
He accomplished that feat by coming up with the fastest combined time by a Canadian over both 500m races held this weekend, aside from William Dutton and Alex Boisvert-Lacroix, who had already qualified.
Sunday saw Dutton finish 7th in 34.97 with his fastest time at a World Cup since his last medal, which he won in Salt Lake City.
Laurent Dubreuil (34.98) of Lévis, QC, was 8th, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix (35.014) of Sherbrooke, QC, was 9th, and Alexandre St-Jean (35.15) of Québec City, was 15th.
“It’s a shame we can’t take our entire team to the World Single Distance Championships, because I know we have a great team, with a lot of depth,” he added.
Kaylin Irvine/Richard Maclennan qualify for 1000m
In the women’s 1000m, Kaylin Irvine of Calgary registered the fastest Canadian time in this distance over the weekend, which earned her the sole spot available to Canada at the World Single Distance Championships.
Sunday, Irvine skated to a time of 1:17.12, the fastest among all the Canadian performances over the two 1000m that were raced, which was good for 18th place in the A group.
On the men’s side, no skater beat the time of 1:10.21 that Sault Ste. Marie’s Richard Maclennan grabbed in the first 1000m event which means he will join Vincent De Haître (Cumberland, Ont.) and Alexandre St-Jean to represent Canada in the 1000m distance at the World Single Distance Championships.
Sunday’s 1000m was De Haître place 6th with a time of 1:09.03 while St-Jean finished (his best-ever result) in 7th-place with a time of 1:09.08. Promoted to the A group, Maclennan was 17th (1:10.67).
Isabelle Weidemann earns her ticket in the 3000m distance
After qualifying for the 5000m event at the World Single Distance Championships held in Calgary winning in this distance at the Canadian Championships (January 4) Isabelle Weidemann (Ottawa) is now able to take part in a second event in the women’s 3000m held at the World Cup in Norway.
In Sunday’s 3000m, the 20-year-old skater was the fastest Canadian with a time of 4:11.00, good for 11th place.
Ivanie Blondin, also from Ottawa, was 12th in 4:11.19, as she had already qualified for Kolomna thanks to her results at the Fall World Cups. Josie Spence of Kamloops, B.C., was 15th in 4:15.48.
The list of skaters who will be on the Canadian teams at the World Championships will be announced at a later date.
For more info please visit www.speedskating.ca
