Maltais, Blondin, Weidemann claim team pursuit silver at speed skating worlds in Calgary

Canada continued its strong showing at the World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships on Friday, collecting two more medals on Calgary's Olympic Oval.

The trio of Valérie Maltais, Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin won silver in the women's team pursuit, while the men's pursuit team of Connor Howe, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Hayden Mayeur followed it up with bronze.

The Canadian women, who won Olympic gold in 2022, clocked a time of two minutes 54.03 seconds for second place behind the Netherlands, edging Japan for silver by 0.86 seconds. Joy Beune, Irene Schouten and Marijke Groeneoud reclaimed the world title from Canada in a track-record time of 2:51.20.

WATCH l Canadian women take team pursuit silver:

In team pursuit, two teams of three skaters begin simultaneously on opposite sides of the oval and race the clock over six laps for women and eight laps for men.

Canada has five medals through two days of competition in Calgary following Thursday's team sprint gold medals and Weidemann's silver in the women's 3,000 metres.

Live coverage of the world championships continues on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Play-by-play and colour commentary will be supplied by CBC Sports' Signa Butler and Anastasia Bucsis, a former Olympic speed skater.

WATCH l Canada snags bronze in men's team pursuit: