Valérie Maltais wins silver at World Cup in Beijing

Valérie Maltais added to Canada’s medal count as she claimed a silver medal in the women’s mass start at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Beijing, China, on Sunday.

The 34-year-old finished just behind Marijke Groenewoud, who won the event for the second weekend in a row with a time of 8:27.62.

Fellow Canadian Ivanie Blondin crossed the finish line in silver medal position with a time of 8:28.49, but was disqualified from the race after officials judged that there was body contact between her and Italian competitor Francesca Lollobrigida.

Due to this result, Maltais was moved from third place to second place, securing the silver medal with a time of 8:28.97, ahead of China’s Binyu Yang who finished in 8:29.72.

In the overall mass start rankings Maltais now sits third with 90 points, behind Groenewoud (120) and her Dutch teammate Elisa Dul (91) and Marijke. Maltais earned the overall title last season with three podiums.

Canada just missed the podium in both of the team sprint events, as the women’s team squad of Blondin, Carolina Hiller and Béatrice Lamarche earned a fourth-place finish with their time of 1:27.53, behind the Netherlands, Poland and the United States.

The men’s trio of Anders Johnson, Christopher Fiola and Yankun Zhao skated together for the very first time, and also finished fourth behind the Netherlands, United States and China.

On Saturday, Isabelle Weidemann skated to a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m final. The podium finish at the Ice Ribbon in Beijing marked a familiar moment for the 29-year-old, as she mirrored her bronze medal result from Tokyo 2020.

Starting in the fourth of eight pairs, Weidemann posted a time of 4:02.02, her fastest time of the season so far. She held the top spot on the leaderboard for two pairs before being edged out by the Netherlands’ Joy Beune, who crossed the line in 4:01.90. Norway’s Ragne Wiklund claimed the gold with a time of 4:00.10.

After opting to skip the Canadian Long Track Championships this fall, Weidemann kicked off her World Cup campaign with a ninth-place finish at the season opener in Nagano, Japan, last weekend — marking only her second race of the season.

“I feel I’m starting to find my racing legs a little bit,” Weidemann said after her race. “I think tactically last weekend, I really messed up. I had a cross-over problem, and I was really upset afterwards, feeling that I let myself down. This weekend, I wanted to be aggressive and showcase everything that I’ve been working on over the summer, and not let those little tactical things get in the way of my performance.”

The podium finish helped Weidemann move up to fourth place in the overall World Cup long distance rankings. She has earned 80 points across two events, placing her behind Wiklund (114), Beune (102) and teammate Blondin (94).

Four Canadian skaters also broke into the top 10 of their respective distances on the second day of racing in Beijing. Blondin, who won gold in last weekend’s 3000m, finished eighth in the distance, while teammate Maltais was tenth. On the men’s side, Graeme Fish and Ted-Jan Bloemen were seventh and ninth in the men’s 5000m, respectively.