THE NETHERLANDS – The Canadian speed skating trios are for real at the world cup.
On Friday (Jan. 29), the women struck gold, and the men, with Canmore-native Connor Howe, won silver in team pursuit at the ISU World Cup #2 Speed Skating in Heerenveen, the Netherlands.
"It’s amazing to me how quickly we’ve all clicked together," said Jordan Belchos of the men's team. "While we train together, we don’t train specifically for the team pursuit all the time. I think today we executed pretty well. I’m really impressed with Connor for coming in these past two weeks and doing just a perfect job.”
🚨 MEDAL ALERT! 🚨
— Speed Skating Canada | Patinage de Vitesse Canada (@SSC_PVC) January 29, 2021
🇨🇦 Ted-Jan Bloemen, Jordan Belchos and Connor Howe lead Canada to a World Cup 🥈 silver medal in the men's Team Pursuit! An upgrade over last weekend's 🥉 bronze!#FasterForward #SpeedSkating pic.twitter.com/qVqellqKvf
The men (Howe, Belchos, and Ted-Jan Bloemen) finished with a time of 3:39.943, squeezed between first place Norway (3:39.080) and third place Russia (3:41.400).
It was an improvement from last week when they took bronze at the world cup #1.
For the women, it was their second gold medal in team pursuit a week and they set a new track record in Heerenveen.
Consisting of of Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais, the women finished with a time of 2:54.640.
In second was the Netherlands (2:55.585), and Norway third (2:58.229).
Just like last week, it's 🥇 for Canada 🇨🇦 in the Ladies Team Pursuit! Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais also skated a new track record: 2:54.640 🔥
— ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) January 29, 2021
Netherlands 🇳🇱 takes silver, with Norway 🇳🇴 in third
🔗: https://t.co/mSbT5mLeXO#SpeedSkating pic.twitter.com/MZ2mEELy5j
The world cup continues Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 30-31) in individual races.