Canada's Maltais finishes 5th in 3,000m event at speed skating world championships

Valerie Maltais skated to fifth place finish in the women's 3,000m on the first day of the ISU World Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands on Thursday.

Maltais of Saguenay, Que., finished with a time of three minutes and 59.88 seconds, which was 3.02 seconds behind gold medal-winner Ragne Wiklund of Norway.

Irene Schouten secured the silver medal in front of a home crowd, racing to a time of 3:57.40, while Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Repbulic took bronze with a 3:58.35 finish.

The Ottawa pair of Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin capped the event in an all-Canadian matchup, with Weidemann finishing sixth with a time of 4:01.32, and Blondin taking ninth with a time of 4:05.44.

The world championships continue through to Sunday from the Netherlands.

Watch Canadian athletes go for gold, streaming live on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and the free CBC Sports app.