Long track speed skating | Blondin and Dubreuil continue their momentum in Salt Lake City

Jean Francois Teutonio
Journalism

Evanni Blondin won the group start on Sunday, taking a second gold medal in two days at Utah. She had won with the Canadian team in the team pursuit the previous day.

And in the men’s category, Laurent Dubriel has risen to a sixth podium in six finals in the 500 meters this season, and a second bronze medal in the event this weekend, after the one he won on Friday.

In the mass start, Blondin crossed the finish line in 8 minutes 31.870 seconds, ahead of Dutchman Marijke Groenewoud (8 minutes 31.880 seconds). Quebec Valerie Maltese (8 min 33.390 sec) took 13th place^NS Ring.

“I’m really confident now, and it shows on the ice,” the skater commented via the video.

The Ottawa woman said she is recovering from an illness that afflicted her last week.

She said, “It was really hard mentally and physically. But I just put my head down, worked hard and worked. I am really happy with the way it went.”

While she says she doesn’t feel quite prepared when it comes to individual Olympic distances, she does believe in her means for a team start and team pursuit.

“These are two really solid dimensions,” she says. Our stalking team is really strong at the moment, I’m really excited about the games. And for a collective start, you never know what’s going to happen. You have done well at this distance in the past and today [dimanche]. I always put myself well. ”

Blondin also won the silver medal in the same event at the World Cup in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, in November. So he leads the overall rating for this distance after two copies.

Every fire every flame on ice

Meanwhile, Dubroye has continued his illustrious start to the season. In addition to his sixth podium and second bronze medal this weekend, he set another personal best in the 500 metres.

Quebec broke its own mark of 34.099 seconds set on Friday. On Sunday, he crossed the finish line in 34.053 seconds, just 5 percent of a second behind gold medalist Wataro Morishige of Japan (33.997 seconds). The silver medal was won by Russian Artem Arifeev (34.003 s).

“Consistency is what excites me the most,” Dobrill said. To be on the podium constantly. ”

“What makes me most happy is being able to have a good race every time,” he added. Even if there are small mistakes, it is necessary to be able to compete and win medals. It’s really cool, I’m really happy. ”

The ice in Salt Lake City — and, incidentally, in Calgary, where the World Cup finals will be held next week — is “the fastest in the world,” according to Dubriel. No wonder the best in-person shows are up, for both men and women, this weekend.

On the ice at sea level [comme en Europe]Lévisien explains that it goes at a slower speed. The skaters are more stable in the last turn at the speed they are used to. While there, when you arrive in Salt Lake City, there are some who have a hard time negotiating turns because they go faster. They haven’t practiced it their whole lives like we did in Calgary, or like the Americans in Salt Lake. A lot of times they come and freeze, make mistakes, and take the bar. ”

This is somewhat similar to what happened to the Russian Viktor Moshtakov and the Chinese Tingyu Zhao, in particular.

The skater leads the overall classification of the event with 312 points. His closest navigator, Japanese Tatsuya Shinhama, has gathered 286 people so far.

Dubreuil has clearly been enjoying his time on the track this season.

“My floor is high, so unless I make a huge mistake, I’ll do well,” he says. After that, it’s either good or very good. It is really fun and encouraging. These are more fun seasons. ”