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Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen captures first speedskating World Cup win of season

Jan 28, 2017 | 11:45 AM

BERLIN — Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen claimed his first victory in the men’s 5,000 metres on Saturday at a speedskating World Cup.

Bloemen, of Calgary, won the race in six minutes 15.84 seconds, edging New Zealand’s Peter Michael by 0.81 seconds for the win. Jorrit Bergsma (6:17.99) of the Netherlands took bronze.

“I struggled earlier this season so it was great to come up with a top-level race today,” said Bloemen. “It’s always hard if you are not skating the way you want to skate, it messes with your confidence. This gold medal win is really great going into the world single distance championships; the second half of the season is the perfect time to get a boost of confidence like this.”

It was Bloemen’s third medal of the season and first gold. The 30-year-old skater had three World Cup medals last year and finished fifth in the 5,000 metres at the world championships.

Vincent De Haitre (1:09.28) of Cumberland, Ont., finished sixth in the men’s 1,000 metres while Laurent Dubreuil (1:10.04) from Levis, Que., was 12th. Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands won the race in 1:08.25.

Nao Kodaira of Japan won another 500-meter sprint for her sixth victory of the season. As on Friday, Kodaira was the only one to clock under 38 seconds.

Kjeld Nuis defeated Dutch teammate Kai Verbij by 0.59 to win the men’s 1,000 with a track record 1:08.25.

Ireen Wust edged Dutch teammate Marrit Leenstra to win back-to-back 1,500 races following her win in Heerenveen last December. Leenstra took the overall lead from Bergsma, who finished fifth in Berlin.

 

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press