Canadian men skate to team sprint gold on 3-medal day for Canada at Four Continents

Canadians won two of the four events on the opening day of the Four Continents speed skating championships on Friday, part of a three-medal haul at the Utah Olympic Oval.

Yankun Zhao joined Olympians Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu atop the men's team sprint podium, while Connor Howe followed it up with a gold medal of his own in the men's 1,500 metres.

The Canadian trio skated to gold in a season-best time of one minute 18.54 seconds, winning the event by over three seconds in Kearns, Utah, near Salt Lake City. Kazakhstan placed second in 1:21.71, followed by South Korea (1:22.01).

The 20-year-old Zhao filled in for Anders Johnson, who was forced to withdraw due to a last-minute injury.

Fellow Canadian Olympian Howe topped the podium with a time of 1:43.19. The 23-year-old from Canmore, Alta., finished ahead of American Emery Lehman (1:44.03) and Japan's Ryota Kojima (1:44.40).

Vincent De Haître of Cumberland, Ont., was 12th in 1:47.69.

Canada opened the competition with bronze in the women's team sprint, as Carolina Hiller, Maddison Pearman and Ivanie Blondin finished just 0.41 seconds behind the United States while setting a Canadian record (1:25.41). Japan captured gold in 1:24.32.

The Canadians bested the previous mark of 1:25.73 from December 2022.

In other Canadian results, Laura Hall and Alison Desmarais finished seventh (2:00.61) and eighth (2:00.77) in the women's 1,500.

Watch live coverage of the Four Continents speed skating championships on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem, continuing Saturday at 4 p.m. ET with the women's 500m.

Ottawa's Isabelle Weidemann will look to add to Canada's haul in the women's 5,000m and 3,000m — the events she took silver and bronze in, respectively, at