Canadian speed skater Laurent Dubreuil finished fourth in his 500-metre event on Sunday in Heerenveen, Netherlands, but it was more than enough to secure his first overall World Cup season title.
Japan’s Tatsuya Shinhama, who won Saturday’s race, also picked up the win in Sunday’s event in a time of 34.487 seconds, but could not catch points leader Dubreuil.
The Canadian finished 15-100ths of a second behind Shinhama, but ended up with an insurmountable point total of 614, to the Japanese skater’s 586.
Dubreuil won silver in the men’s 1,000 at last month’s Beijing Olympics, after a disappointing showing in his signature event. He finished fourth in the 500 in Beijing, the only time all season he missed the podium in the distance.
WATCH | Dubreuil clinches overall season title in the men’s 500m:
Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., finished fourth in his 500-metre race, but was still able to claim the overall season championship. 1:53
Canada’s Ivanie Blondin was overtaken at the finish line for both the bronze medal and the overall title in the final mass start event of the season.
The Ottawa native, who won Olympic gold with teammates Isabelle Weidemann and Valerie Maltais in the team pursuit in Beijing last month, entered the race with a 34-point lead over her nearest competitor, Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida.
The Italian took 21 sprint points to Blondin’s 12, and crossed the finish line seven-hundredths of a second ahead of the Canadian for the bronze-medal finish. That gave Lollobrigida the points she needed to leapfrog Blondin for the season title.
Dutch skaters Irene Schouten and Marijke Groenewoud took gold and silver, respectively. Schouten also finished third-overal for the season.
Fellow Canadian Connor Howe posted a bronze-medal performance in the final men’s 1,500m race of the season. That helped the Canmore, Alta. athlete to a second-overall finish in the season standings, behind Joey Mantia of the United States.
Howe skated to a time of 1:44.393,
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