By Canadian Press

Smeekens, Kodaira win 500-metre speedskating titles; Canada fourth in pursuit

Feb 10, 2017 | 6:15 AM

PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — The Canadian men’s pursuit team just missed the podium at the world single distance speedskating championships on Friday, finishing less than one-10th of a second behind third-place Norway.

The Netherlands won the race in three minutes 40.66 seconds and New Zealand was second in 3:41.08. Norway took the bronze in 3:41.60 while the team of Toronto’s Jordan Belchos, Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen and Ben Donnelly of Oshawa, Ont., was fourth in 3:41.68.

The trio was third in last year’s event, narrowly finishing ahead of Italy.

“Last year, we won a bronze medal by one hundredth of a second and now, here we are on the other side and we get to find out what it feels like,” said Belchos. “It’s going to fuel the fire for the next 12 months.

“It’s going to help us get up in the morning when it’s really tough in the summer, something to remind us how hard it is to be the best in the world. We’re only a second away from a win. We’re a team that comes to win. We can take that from today and move forward.”

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Bloemen agreed.

“Fourth place is always a bit of a bad ranking, being so close to the podium,” he said. “We’re all sad about that.

“Still, we executed our plan very well today, it’s just that it wasn’t fast enough. We were so close! I’m looking forward to next year at the Olympics because we’re really close.”

Olympic silver medallist Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands won the 500-metre title on the 2018 Olympic track. He clocked 34.58 seconds to finish 0.08 seconds ahead of Nico Ihle of Germany.

Ruslan Murashov of Russia was third in 34.76. Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., was the top Canadian in ninth.

Nao Kodaira of Japan took the women’s 500 title in 37.13, 0.35 seconds ahead of Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea.

Yu Jing of China was third in 37.57. Winnipeg’s Heather McLean was the top Canadian in fifth, just ahead of Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., in sixth.

The Dutch team won the women’s team pursuit in 2:55.85, 0.64 seconds ahead of Japan. South Korea was third in 3:02.95.

The Canadian team of Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann, both of Ottawa, and Brianne Tutt from Airdrie, Alta., didn’t finish the race.

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With files from The Associated Press.

The Canadian Press