Canadian women strike team pursuit gold at Four Continents speed skating championships

Canada's Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais started the final day of the Four Continents speed skating championships with a bang on Sunday at the Utah Olympic Oval near Salt Lake City.

The trio won the women's team pursuit in an event-record time of two minutes 54.02 seconds — 3.52 seconds ahead of second-place Japan, and 10.30 seconds ahead of bronze-medallists United States.

Paired with South Korea in the second race of the four-team event, Canada lapped its opponent on the last turn just before crossing the finish line on the sixth and final lap, with the South Koreans finishing their last lap 16.76 seconds later.

WATCH | Canada wins women's pursuit gold:

While Japan set the Four Continents record time mere minutes before Canada staked its claim in the short four-year history of the competition, the pace the Canadians skated at was just 0.58 seconds off its time of 2:53.44 to win Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022.

Blondin and Weidemann, both of Ottawa, and Maltais of La Baie, Que., have dominated the event for years, winning eight straight World Cup races in the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons, only to have their streak snapped by Japan at the first World Cup event of this season in Japan in November.

All three women had already secured individual medals earlier in the three-day event.

Blondin took home her second gold of the day on Sunday by winning the women's mass start in a time of 8:42.56, collecting 66 sprint points.

American Giorgia Birkeland was second with a time of 8:44.65 and 43 sprint points, and Kyoko Nitta of Japan claimed bronze with an 8:47.19 time and 26 sprint points.

WATCH | Blondin adds another gold medal in mass start:

Blondin kicked into high gear on the 16th and