Ivanie Blondin upends Olympic speed skating champ Schouten in women’s mass start | CBC Sports

With last February’s Olympic final undoubtedly fresh in her mind, silver medallist Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa got the best of champion Irene Schouten this time around, edging the Dutch speed skater at the finish line Sunday to take the first mass start of the women’s World Cup season in Stavanger, Norway.

Blondin stopped the clock in eight minutes 58.72 seconds, 8-100ths of a second ahead of Schouten’s teammate, Marijke Groenewoud (8:58.80), while Schouten reached in 8:59.05 for third.

On Saturday, Blondin won gold in women’s team pursuit with fellow 2022 Olympic champions Isabelle Weidemann of Ottawa and Valérie Maltais of Saguenay, Que., who placed seventh in Sunday’s mass start in 9:02.52.

Also Saturday, the 32-year-old Blondin narrowly missed the podium in the 1,500 metres, finishing 6-100ths behind third-place Groenewoud.

WATCH | Blondin beats Groenewoud for mass start win at World Cup opener:

Ivanie Blondin wins gold medal at speed skating World Cup

Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin came out on top in the women’s mass start final with a time of 8:58.72 at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating event in Stavanger.

Dubreuil wins silver

Laurent Dubreuil earned his second silver medal of the weekend to start the season with back-to-back podium finishes.

The Lévis, Que., native raced to a time of 1:09.22 to secure second place in the men’s 1,000.

American Jordan Stolz edged the Canadian by 0.49 seconds for the gold medal while Japan’s Ryota Kojima rounded out the podium.

On Saturday, Dubreuil grabbed silver in the men’s 500 with a time of 34.750.

The 30-year-old finished last season as world champion in the 500 after winning 10 medals over 12 races.

WATCH l Dubreuil wins silver in men’s 1,000 metres:

Laurent Dubreuil skates to silver at speed skating World Cup

Levis, Que.’s Laurent Dubreuil finished with a time of 1:09.22 to place 2nd in the men’s 1,000-metre competition at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating event in Stavanger.