Speedskater Laurent Dubreuil shatters Canadian record at World Cup stop in Calgary
Global News
Laurent Dubreuil didn't just break Jeremy Wotherspoon's Canadian record, he shattered it.
Laurent Dubreuil didn’t just break Jeremy Wotherspoon’s Canadian record, he shattered it.
Dubreuil of Levis, Que., won gold in the men’s 500 metres in a track-record time of 33.77 seconds on the opening day of the ISU World Cup speedskating event at Calgary’s Olympic Oval.
The 29-year-old sprinter’s time broke Wotherspoon’s 14-year-old record of 34.03, which Dubreuil narrowly missed breaking by 2/100ths of second at last weekend’s World Cup stop in Salt Lake City.
“It was a goal of mine this year to both beat Jeremy Wotherspoon’s Canadian record and skate under 34,” said Dubreuil. “I was very close last week, 34.05, but I made a few mistakes, so to have another chance to do it this weekend was big.”
With Wotherspoon in attendance, Dubreuil beat what he referred to as a “mythical time.” After the race, the two talked about the record-setting accomplishment.
“He’s a competitor, but he told me he was happy that it was somebody he saw grow up skating and got better and (worked) hard to beat it,” said Dubreuil, who will now have to set his sights on breaking the world record of 33.61 set in 2019 by Russia’s Pavel Kulizhnikov.
“I told him how much it means for me.”
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