Canada stood at the top of the podium after its effort in the men’s team sprint and Ted-Jan Bloemen and Ivanie Blondin also added to Canada’s medal count at the long track speed skating World Cup season opener in Heerenveen, Netherlands on Sunday.
The trio of Laurent Dubreuil (Levis, Que.), Alexandre St-Jean (Quebec City), and Vincent De Haitre (Cumberland, Ont.) finished with a time of one minute, 19.55 seconds, followed by Norway at 1:20.00 and Russia at 1:20.94.
Earlier, Bloemen, who was born in Leiderdorp, Netherlands, earned silver in the 5000-metre race with a time of 6:14.95 seconds – 2.07 seconds behind Sven Kramer, who won on home soil. Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen was third at 6:15.81.
