Heerenveen / Netherlands

Canada confirmed its status as a powerhouse in men’s sprinting when Laurent Dubreuil, Alexandre St-Jean and Vincent De Haître (CAN) beat Germany in the final pairing of the men’s Team Sprint to clinch World Cup gold in Heerenveen on Sunday. 

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Norway took a surprise silver as Russia grabbed the bronze. Germany finished seventh.

De Haître was brought into the Canadian line-up at the last minute after claiming fifth place in the 1000m earlier in the day. 

He was pleased with his team’s morale, adding: “We have a very good group of sprinters in Canada. It’s very nice to skate together in an event like this.”

Although Norway is not renowned for world class sprinters, the Scandinavian country has improved significantly in this area in the past year and boasted this weekend’s 500m gold medalist Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen as anchor. 

Norway sprint coach and former 500m world record holder Jeremy Wotherspoon (CAN) did not want to take all the credit.

“I did not start the sprint program in Norway, that was already running,” he said. “They had put more focus on the sprint program before I came. I tried to keep on doing what they were doing well, build on it and apply some of my philosophy into the program.”

In the ladies event Angelina Golikova, Olga Fatkulina and Elizavita Kazelina took gold for Russia. Anne Gulbrandsen, Hege Bøkko and Ida Njåtun handed Norway silver, while Kim Hyun-Yung, Park Seung-Hi and Kim Min Sun took bronze for the Republic of Korea.

Full results and classifications.