Carolina Hiller has done it again.
The two-time reigning world champion from Prince George wowed a near-sellout crowd Sunday at the Olympic Oval in Calgary when she combined with Beatrice Lamarche and Ivanie Blondie to win gold in the World Cup team sprint.
The Canadians clocked 1:24.90, edging Poland (+1.12) and Kazakhstan (+1.46) for top spot on the podium.
It was the first medal of the season for the sprint team. Hiller and her teammates Lamarche (Quebec City) and Blondin (Ottawa) where fourth in their only other skate together at a ISU World Cup event in Beijing.
In November the Canadian trio won gold at the Four Continents championships in Hachinohe, Japan.
“It felt really nice to finally get onto the podium this weekend,” Blondin posted on the Speed Skating Canada website.
“As a training group, the middle and long distance skaters did two high-altitude camps and our legs were just not there this weekend. But the focus is always to peak at world championships, and we try to remind ourselves that.
“I would have loved to hit the podium a few more times this weekend and not just this once, but I’m really satisfied to have done it with the girls in the team sprint. It was an incredible, collective effort and that’s what makes it so beautiful.”
The Canadian men - Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.), Anders Johnson (Burnaby) and Connor Howe (Canmore, Alta.) were fourth in the team sprint, finishing in 1:17.75, 17/100ths of a second behind the bronze medalists from Poland. The Americans set the pace in world record time (1:16.98), ahead of the Netherlands (+0.56) and Poland (+0.60).
Hiller was 16th as the top Canadian in the women’s 500m event on Saturday, finishing in 37.95 seconds. Femke Kok of the Netherlands took gold in 37.01.
Hiller is ranked 14th in the world at the 500m distance. She set a personal best (37.85) at a World Cup race in Calgary Dec. 16.
Dubreuil was fifth in the men’s 500m in 34.14. American skater Jordan Stolz set the pace, winning in 33.85.
The World Cup tour resumes next weekend in Milwaukee, Wisc., with races in February in the Netherlands and Poland. The world championships will be in Hamar, Norway, March 13-16.
