Canadian speed skaters collect women's team sprint bronze in World Cup action
Valérie Maltais falls short of medal podium in women's 5,000m, placing 4th in Norway
Not long after missing out on an individual speed skating medal Sunday, Ivanie Blondin made certain to not end the day without a podium finish.
The Ottawa native helped Canada's women to team sprint bronze, posting a time of one minute 28.34 seconds to hold off a Polish trio (1:29.71) in Stavanger, Norway. Maddison Pearman (Ponoka, Alta.) and Carolina Hiller (Prince George, B.C.) were the other Canadian team members.
Pearman said she was happy to be back on the podium with her teammates after a disappointing weekend of individual races.
"We are lucky that we've got a strong team of women that we can interchange and still end up on the podium," Pearman said in a release. "I had a disappointing weekend in my individual races, so it feels great to finish off the weekend with a fun event and a medal."
Earlier, Blondin was eighth of 12 skaters in the women's 5,000-metre A Division final. She was seventh in the women's 1,500 on Saturday. Blondin, the reigning Olympic silver medallist in the mass start, was disqualified from Friday's race with nine others after being lapped by the race leaders.
The United States won Sunday's competition in 1:27.92, followed by the Netherlands (1:28.17).
WATCH | Canada holds off Poland for women's team sprint bronze in Norway:
In other events, Valérie Maltais of Saguenay, Que., narrowly missed the medal podium in the women's 5,000, finishing fourth in 7:05.60. Martina Sábliková of the Czech Republic broke the seven-minute barrier, clocking a winning time of 6:59.60.
Maltais grabbed silver in Saturday's mass start, improving on her third-place finish from November in Beijing.
Maltais, 33, has enjoyed a successful start to her season, helping Canada win gold in the lone team pursuit while also notching a fourth-place finish in the season-opening mass start in Japan.
WATCH | Maltais wins mass start silver on Saturday:
Laura Hall of Salmon Arm, B.C., was last in the field of 12 in a time of 7:38.79.
In men's team sprint, Canada was fifth (1:21.59) in a race won by Norway (1:19.30).
Hiller was the first Canadian on the ice Sunday, reaching the finish of the women's 500m in 38.63 seconds for 11th of 20 athletes.
WATCH | Full coverage of the final day of competition from Stavanger:
