Graeme Fish leads Canadian speed skating medal haul at Four Continents
Fish snags gold with track-record skate in men's 5,000m
Graeme Fish led Canada's speed skating team to a four-medal day at the Four Continents championship Saturday in Hachinohe, Japan, with a victory in the men's 5,000 metres.
Fish, from Moose Jaw, Sask., posted a winning time of six minutes and 18.06 seconds.
Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que. was second in the men's 500 metres.
Ottawa's Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin finished second and third respectively in the women's 3,000.
Fish, 27, was the world champion in the 10,000 metres and took bronze in the 5k in 2020.
WATCH | Canada's Fish wins gold, breaks track record:
He says the title gives him confidence for the upcoming weekends.
"It proves that I've been doing the right things in the off-season. I'm starting to feel like I did back in 2020," he said.
"There's still a lot of stuff I need to keep working on, so I'm going to do my best to keep getting better every day on the ice so that I can back to that level."
His Canadian teammate Ted-Jan Bloemen finished fourth behind Japan's Riku Tsuchiya 5.34 seconds back of Fish, with Seitaro Ichinohe just over six seconds behind.
American star Jordan Stolz, who collected his second win in as many days after taking the men's 1,500, won the 500 in 34.47 seconds ahead of Dubreuil's 34.68.
WATCH | Canada's Dubreuil speed skates to Four Continents silver medal:
The 32-year-old Dubreuil, an Olympic silver medallist in the 1,000 in 2022, continues to chase the 20-year-old Stolz in the sprints.
"I am happy with my time and execution," Dubreuil said. "We've been in Asia for less than a week now, so to skate a 34.6 — faster that what I skated at the start of the season in Quebec City on an ice that is clearly slower — is pretty good."
Japan's Momoka Horikawa took the women's 3k ahead just over a second faster than Canadians Weidemann and Blondin. Valerie Maltais of La Baie, Que. was fourth.
WATCH | Canada's Weidemann wins silver, Blondin takes bronze:
"This was my first race of the year, so I don't think I can read into it too much, but I hope it's an indication of how things will go this season," said Weidemann, an Olympic bronze medallist in the distance in 2022.
"I feel stronger and ready to race again, which is something that I didn't really feel last year."
The Four Continents concludes Sunday.
WATCH | Full replay coverage of speed skating action from Hachinohe:
Other key dates:
- World Cup, Calgary (Jan. 24-26)
- World Cup, Milwaukee, Wisc. (Jan. 31-Feb. 2)
- World Cup, Zakopane, Poland (Feb. 21-23)
- World Cup, Heerenveen, Netherlands (Feb. 28-March 2)
- World single distance championships, Hamar, Norway (Feb. 15-18)
Canada roster
- Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary)
- Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.)
- Graeme Fish (Moose Jaw, Sask.)
- Connor Howe (Canmore, Alta.)
- Anders Johnson (Burnaby, B.C.)
- Tyson Langelaar (Winnipeg)
- David La Rue (Saint-Lambert, Que.)
- Hayden Mayeur (Toronto)
- Yankun Zhao (Calgary)
- Christopher Fiola (Montréal)
- Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa)
- Carolina Hiller (Prince George, B.C.)
- Béatrice Lamarche (Quebec City)
- Valérie Maltais (La Baie, Que.)
- Maddison Pearman (Ponoka, Alta.)
- Isabelle Weidemann (Ottawa)
