Ivanie Blondin earns new track record, 2nd speed skating gold in Nagano
Canadian speed skater Ivanie Blondin continues to impress on the World Cup circuit, winning her second gold of the weekend in Nagano, Japan, on Saturday.
Blondin, from Ottawa, finished the race in a new track record of 4:00.243 to land on the top of the podium, bettering the previous mark by more than three seconds.
Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann took bronze in the 3,000, her time of 4:03.051 just behind the former track record holder, Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic, who finished in 4:01.976.
??♀️ Watch <a href=»https://twitter.com/IvanieB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw»>@IvanieB</a> rip up the Nagano ice to break the track record and clinch ? in Saturday’s Ladies’ 3000m<br><br>Results: <a href=»https://t.co/O2TTGYOKLs»>https://t.co/O2TTGYOKLs</a><a href=»https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpeedSkating?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw»>#SpeedSkating</a> <a href=»https://t.co/08I4XUIBwe»>pic.twitter.com/08I4XUIBwe</a>
—@ISU_Speed
Blondin won yesterday’s women’s mass start event and says she was confident after the previous weekend where she set two other track records on the way to a pair of individual gold in Nur-Sultan, Kahzakstan.
«I was really confident out there and felt like today was going to be a good day. Coming off last weekend, it’s hard to not be confident and I carried that through to a great race,» Blondin said Friday.
The Canadian men’s team pursuit squad also won bronze on Saturday. The team of Ted-Jan Bloemen, Graeme Fish, Jordan Belchos and Tyson Langelaar finished in a time of 3:44.876, behind gold-medal winners Russia (3:42.939), and the second-placed Japanese team (3:42.999).
