Weekend Roundup: Blondin leads World Cup medal haul, figure skaters close Grand Prix with two medals in China

Team Canada athletes won a flurry of skating medals over the weekend, including a standout performance at the first ISU World Cup of the long track speed skating season and two more podium finishes at the final event of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.

There were also a couple of notable performances in skeleton and ski jumping, with the latter kicking off its FIS World Cup season in Norway.

Here’s a quick look back at what you may have missed:

Long Track Speed Skating: Ivanie Blondin is golden again

Canadian long track speed skaters had a solid showing at the opener of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating circuit, winning four medals in Nagano, Japan.

READ: Blondin wins three medals at long track World Cup opener in Nagano

Ivanie Blondin skated to gold in the women’s 3000m on Saturday. In the third pairing alongside fellow Canadian Valérie Maltais, Blondin stopped the clock in 4:03.76, which held up as the top time. Ragne Wiklund of Norway and Joy Beune of the Netherlands came the closest to the Canadian, both finishing 0.84 of a second back. Maltais’ time of 4:05.03 put her in fifth place.

The gold marks Blondin’s first World Cup victory in an individual event other than the mass start since the last time a World Cup was held at the M-Wave in Nagano in December 2019. She had an indication on Friday that she was racing well when she finished fifth in the 1500m, just 0.07 back of a podium position.

Blondin added two more medals on Sunday, taking silver in the women’s mass start and bronze in the mixed relay with 20-year-old teammate Yankun Zhao. It was Canada’s first medal in the latter event, which was added to the World Cup circuit last season, and Zhao’s first career World Cup podium.

Sprint star Laurent Dubreuil won silver in the first men’s 500m race of the weekend, clocking a time of 34.58 seconds. He finished fourth in the second 500m on Sunday, 0.05 of a second off the podium.

There was also a near-podium performance by Graeme Fish who placed fourth in the men’s 5000m. His time of 6:17.33 was 1.62 seconds back of third place. Teammate Ted-Jan Bloemen finished sixth in the event.

Figure Skating: Canada medals in ice dance, pairs

Ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha put on quite a show at the Cup of China, the last of six stops on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. They earned season best scores in both the rhythm dance and free dance to win the silver medal with a score of 205.16.

READ: Lajoie and Lagha claim second Grand Prix silver of season at Cup of China

The only team to beat them was Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, who are two-time world championship medallists. In the free dance, Lajoie and Lagha outscored the Italians on the technical mark and ended up just 0.66 behind them on the overall score for the program. With their second Grand Prix silver of the season, Lajoie and Lagha are qualified for next week’s ISU Grand Prix Final, joining fellow Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in the elite six-team field.

That wasn’t the only Canadian medal as Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud skated to bronze in the pairs competition. After posting a personal best score in the short program on Friday, they earned a season best score in the free skate to finish comfortably in third with 188.74 points.

Skeleton: Another World Cup top-10 for Hallie Clarke

Hallie Clarke finished seventh at the IBSF World Cup stop in Yanqing, China on Saturday. Her two-time run of 2:05.79 was 1.52 seconds off that of gold medallist Dan Zhao of China. The track, which hosted Olympic competition during Beijing 2022, is a relatively new one for Clarke, whose only other race experience on it was last year’s World Cup stop when she finished 15th.

Clarke opened the IBSF World Cup season last weekend with a sixth-place finish in the first race in PyeongChang, South Korea before placing 14th in the second race on the 2018 Olympic track. The World Cup circuit will take a one week break as it shifts to Europe, with the next women’s skeleton race on December 6 in Altenberg, Germany.

Ski Jumping: Loutitt and Strate record top-10 finishes

A couple of Canadians were right in the thick of things at the first FIS Ski Jumping World Cup stop of the season in Lillehammer, Norway. On Saturday, Alexandria Loutitt and Abigail Strate placed eighth and ninth, respectively, in the women’s large hill. Loutitt followed up with a 10th place finish in Sunday’s second large hill event of the weekend, in which Strate placed 18th.

Alpine Skiing: St-Germain just outside top-10 in World Cup slalom

It was another strong weekend of skiing for Laurence St-Germain, who placed 11th on Saturday in the women’s slalom race at the FIS World Cup in Gurgl, Austria. She had opened up her season with a 10th place finish in last week’s slalom race in Levi, Finland. Ali Nullmeyer was the only other Canadian to complete two runs in Gurgl, placing 18th.

The Canadian women’s technical team is now coming home to North America for World Cup slalom and giant slalom races this weekend in Vermont before a set of giant slalom races in Tremblant, Quebec on December 7-8.

Freestyle Skiing: Top 8 in slopestyle for Asselin in Austria

Olivia Asselin was the top Canadian slopestyle competitor at the FIS Freestyle World Cup in Stubai, Austria, finishing eighth. Max Moffatt led the Canadian men with his 12th-place finish. Weather played havoc with the schedule, so results from qualification stood as the final results.