Blondin strikes gold with women's mass start win at ISU speed skating World Cup
Dubreuil wins bronze in men's 500m, 6th World Cup medal this season
Canada's Ivanie Blondin won her second gold medal of the weekend, emerging victorious in the women's mass start at the speed skating World Cup in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday.
Blondin, of Ottawa, Ont., finished with a time of eight minutes 31.870 seconds, beating out the Netherlands' Marijke Groenewoud by one-hundredth of a second.
Norway's Sofie Haugen won the bronze medal crossing the finish line in 8:32.260.
"I was a little sick last week and am just coming back from that," Blondin said. "It was a tough weekend both mentally and physically, but I just put my head down, worked hard and it resulted in some good performances. I'm confident with the shape I am in right now and I think it's translating to good results on the ice."
WATCH | Canada's Blondin narrowly wins women's mass start race:
Haugen had what seemed to be a comfortable lead going into the final lap, until Blondin came charging from sixth place to first in order to grab the win.
The victory is the 31-year-old's first in the mass start event this season. It also helped Blondin (336) leap past Dutch rival Irene Schouten (326) in the World Cup rankings, with Groenewoud sitting in third (314).
Blondin also won a gold medal on Saturday in the women's team pursuit alongside Isabelle Weidemann and Valerie Maltais.
Dubreuil collects 6th medal in a row
Canadian Laurent Dubreuil continued his ever-impressive string of performances with yet another medal, winning bronze in the men's 500 metres on Sunday.
Dubreuil, of Lévis, Que., finished with a personal best of 34.053 seconds.
The 29-year-old narrowly missed Jeremy Wotherspoon's national record of 34.03 seconds.
"It was not a perfect race – I could have gone a little faster – but I'm very happy with the result," Dubreuil said. "I haven't had a perfect race yet this year. Each race, I had little something that I think I could improve on, but what makes me happy is my ability to put forth consistent performances that are helping me win medals."
WATCH | Dubreuil wins 6th World Cup medal with bronze in men's 500m:
Wataru Morishige, of Japan, won gold with a time of 33.997 seconds, while the Russian Olympic Committee's Artem Arefyev took silver with a time of 34.003.
It's the sixth consecutive medal in World Cup competition for Dubreuil, the reigning 500m world champion. He has won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the distance to start the season.
He currently sits atop the World Cup standings with 312 points, 26 points ahead of his closest competitor, Japan's Tatsuya Shinhama (286).
