Canadian men zoom to team sprint gold at speed skating World Cup
Dubreuil, Johnson, Gélinas-Beaulieu take top spot by more than a second
Canada emerged with a gold medal on the first day of the final speed skating World Cup of the season.
Skating together for the first time, the trio of Laurent Dubreuil, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Anders Johnson scored a team sprint win with relative ease on Friday in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.
The Canadians' time of one minute 19.53 seconds outpaced second-place Norway by 1.36 seconds. Japan, 1.83 seconds behind Canada, rounded out the podium with bronze.
The victory vaulted Canada to second in the overall standings, its second medal in three tries after previously bagging bronze in December in Calgary.
WATCH | Canadians grab gold in team sprint:
It also marked Canada's first win in the discipline in five seasons.
"Even if we didn't really practice the team sprint together, we knew that on paper, the team was excellent," Gélinas-Beaulieu said. "Crossing the line, I knew it was a podium, and Laurent was sure of victory. It is motivating to see the improvement of our team, especially in view of the world championships in two weeks."
The team sprint, in which three skaters begin with one peeling off after each of the first two laps, is not an Olympic event.
Dubreuil, the 30-year-old sprint specialist from Lévis, Que., may compete on all three days of the World Cup. The 500 metres is set for Saturday while the 1,000m, the event in which he won silver at the Beijing Olympics, goes Sunday.
Dubreuil currently leads the season-long 500m standings and sits second in the 1,000m.
Gélinas-Beaulieu, also 30, had himself a busy Friday after placing fifth in the 1,500m in the first A-Division race of the day. The Sherbooke, Que., native finished 1.24 seconds behind gold medallist American Jordan Stolz, who set a track record of 1:45.44.
Fellow Canadians Tyson Langelaar and Connor Howe placed 11th and 14th, respectively.
Johnson, 25, skated the anchor leg in the team sprint win.
"First time racing team sprint and it's a gold," Johnson said. "I've looked up to Laurent and Antoine in skating and getting to go to the line with them for this race was a dream come true."
Canada's Men's Team Sprint collects their gold medals AND new husky friend in Poland <a href="https://t.co/M0vtxzzRxL">pic.twitter.com/M0vtxzzRxL</a>
—@CBCOlympics4-5-6 for Canadian women
Meanwhile, it was a close call for Canadian women in 3,000m, but the trio of Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais wound up finishing 4-5-6.
Ottawa's Blondin and Maltais, of Saguenay, Que., skated together in the second-last pairing. Blondin put herself in podium position by crossing the line in 4:09.36, while Maltais was just behind in 4:10.77.
Weidemann, also of Ottawa, wound up fourth overall with a time of 4:09.11, but she failed to keep up with the wicked pace of Wiklund, who skated a track-record time of 4:02.79 to win the event by nearly three seconds.
Czech skater Martina Sáblíková took silver while the Netherlands' Joy Beune brought home bronze.
The gold medal helped Wiklund — who reached the podium six times this season —secure the World Cup title in the long distances with 342 points. Weidemann and Beune were tied for second in the rankings with 251 points, slightly ahead of Blondin (241).
Canada's Carolina Hiller and Brooklyn McDougall placed 12th and 20th, respectively, in the women's 500m.
Live coverage from Poland continues Saturday at 7:45 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
WATCH | Full coverage from Day 1 in Poland:
With files from The Canadian Press
