Valérie Maltais 'surprised' by 2-medal weekend at season's final speed skating World Cup event
La Baie, Que., native picks up women's mass start silver on Sunday in Inzell, Germany
Valérie Maltais earned her second podium of the weekend on Sunday, bringing home silver in the women's mass start to conclude the final speed skating World Cup event of the season.
The 35-year-old from La Baie, Que., finished the 16-lap race in eight minutes 38.77 seconds, behind Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands (8:38.32).
"Obviously, I wanted a podium but today was more about how I felt while racing," Maltais said from Germany. "I'm kind of surprised with my weekend. I just finished a hard training block and didn't know exactly how I would feel.
"I have some good legs and seem to be recovering well, so I'm very happy. Hopefully I will keep feeling better; we'll see in two weeks."
On Saturday, Maltais claimed her third individual medal of the season, grabbing bronze in the women’s 3,000-metre race.
She completed the race with a time of three minutes and 3:59.920, edging Kazakhstan’s Nadezhda Morozova (4:00.198).
Maltais now boasts six World Cup podium finishes in individual distances, all but one in the 3,000. She achieved her best World Cup result in Salt Lake City, U.S., earlier this season, finishing second ahead of Wiklund in the November event.
Maltais qualified for her fifth Olympic Games earlier this winter. The women’s 3,000 will be contested Feb. 7.
Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin narrowly missed the podium on Sunday at 8:39.29 behind American Mia Manganello, who outstretched Blondin at the finish line to stop the clock just 1-100th of a second quicker.
Blondin still finished Sunday's competition with a medal, teaming up with Quebec City's Beatrice Lamarche and Carolina Hiller-Donnelly of Prince George, B.C., to guide Canada to silver in the women's team sprint (1:26.84).
The Dutch set a track record time of 1:25.52 to win gold, while the host Germans finished in bronze-medal position (1:28.45).
Canada's long track speed skating team will remain in Inzell for a week-long training camp, before heading to Italy for the Olympics. Racing at the Milano Ice Park's temporary oval in Rho runs from Feb. 7-21.
