WEEKEND WRAP: Weidemann, Blondin back in golden form on eve of World Cup in Quebec City

By Dan Plouffe

Isabelle Weidemann returned to her spot alongside fellow Ottawa speed skater Ivanie Blondin and La Baie, QC’s Valérie Maltais in the Canadian women’s team pursuit lineup on Saturday, and the trio found a familiar place atop the podium at a World Cup race in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The reigning Olympic and world champions cruised to a comfortable 1.44-second victory in their showdown with Japan, finishing the six-lap race in 2:54.07.

Weidemann missed the second of three World Cup team pursuit races while back at her home base in Calgary. After poor showings early in the season, she elected to withdraw from several European meets to focus on her training in preparation for the World Championships, which will be held in Calgary from Feb. 15-18.

“We’re happy with how we raced,” Weidemann said via Speed Skating Canada. “We’ve got something to clean up — I had a slip at the start, and then Val and I clipped blades coming out in the last corner — so we’re looking forward to spending the next few weeks doing a little more training together.

“I’ve had to learn a lot in my new role in the middle. I’m stoked to be back. I’ve raced the team pursuit with Ivanie for like eight years — we haven’t missed a single one together – so I had a bit of a hard time watching the girls race without me in the fall. Not because I felt like I should be on the start line, but because I felt like I should have been there supporting my team.

“It was super awesome to watch Béatrice (Lamarche) race though — and have her help to secure a second place overall this year. We haven’t had depth like that in the women’s team pursuit in a long time. It’s very cool.”

Blondin earned a second gold medal on the weekend when she won her signature mass start event Sunday. Blondin found the inside track coming off the final corner of the 16-lap race and out-sprinted rival Irene Schouten of the Netherlands to claim her second victory of the season by .11 seconds in 8:14.70, while Maltais placed third.

Blondin pulled within three points of Maltais atop the overall World Cup mass start standings, setting the stage for a showdown in the final World Cup of the season next weekend.

Blondin, Weidemann and fellow Gloucester Concordes products Vincent De Haître and Jake Weidemann will have the opportunity to race in the closest World Cup to home of their careers as Quebec City welcomes its first-ever indoor meet on the global circuit from Feb. 2-4.

De Haître placed a season-best 12th in the 1,500 metres and 18th (A division) and 12th (B division) in a pair of men’s 1,000 m races in Salt Lake City.

Isabelle Weidemann had to skate in the women’s 3,000 m B division since she missed earlier races, but topped the standings with a time that was better than all posted in the A division.

Isabelle’s younger brother Jake placed 20th in the men’s 5,000 m B division and helped Canada to a B division team pursuit win.

Blondin competed in many more races in Salt Lake City, placing 12th and 20th in a pair of 1,000 m events, sixth in the 1,500 m, seventh in the 3,000 m and fourth in the mixed relay.

Schmidt siblings lead men’s & women’s World Cup ski cross rankings

Hannah Schmidt joined brother Jared atop the World Cup ski cross overall standings thanks to her bronze medal performance Sunday in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

The 29-year-old from Dunrobin won her quarter-final heat and then finished behind fellow Canadian Marielle Thompson in both the semi-final and big final, which Thompson won.

It was Hannah’s third consecutive podium finish following her back-to-back victories in Calgary.

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Jared did not make it through the first heat of the men’s event in St. Moritz, finishing 49th. But the winner of three consecutive races in December maintained his lead atop the men’s World Cup standings at 353 points, with Canadian teammate Reece Howden next closest at 331.

Hannah leads the women’s standings with 529, followed by France’s Marielle Berger Sabbatel at 480 and Thompson at 467.

Team Inglis joins Team Homan as Scotties curling qualifiers

The Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club curling rink of skip Danielle Inglis, third Kira Brunton, second Calissa Daly and lead Cassandra de Groot won their first career Ontario provincial women’s championship in Dorchester.

Team Inglis played three times against Toronto’s Carly Howard rink, which featured Ottawa native Lynn Kreviazuk at second, during the competition.

In their first meeting with Howard, Inglis won a third consecutive match to top the A bracket , but then they lost to Howard in the page playoff rematch. Inglis then beat a Niagara rink 10-4 in the semi-final to setup a rubber match with Howard for all the marbles.

Inglis scored four points in the sixth end to jump ahead 6-2 in the championship match. Up two with hammer in the final end, Team Inglis gave up just one point to earn the 8-7 win and a trip to the Feb. 16-25 Scotties national women’s championships in Calgary.

Pinch us. Dreams do come true! TEAM ONTARIO!!! ❤️🖤❤️🖤 pic.twitter.com/l9eYYl8QGF— Team Inglis (@TeamInglis) January 27, 2024

There will be two local rinks competing in Calgary. Rachel Homan’s Ottawa Curling Club rink pre-qualified for the Scotties thanks to their high standing in last season’s Canadian ranking. It will be Team Homan’s 10th career appearance at the Scotties, which they won in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

Playing second for Glenn Howard, Ottawa’s David Mathers also won an Ontario curling title on the men’s side. His team qualified to represent Ontario at the 2024 Montana’s Brier, which will be held from Mar. 1-10 in Regina.

Valérie Grenier wins first career World Cup downhill medal

Racing in her first World Cup downhill in five years, St. Isidore’s Valérie Grenier won a bronze medal on Friday, finishing in a very rare three-way tie for third place in a time of 1:33.77 at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

“I still can’t believe it,” Grenier told Alpine Canada an hour after her race. ”I felt really good with my run. The whole way down I was on the line I wanted, but when I crossed the finish and saw third place, I was shocked.

“There were no expectations coming into (the race) and the team kept it pretty relaxed at the top as we were warming-up. It can help sometimes when you just relax and go ski.”

The result was the best downhill finish of Grenier’s career and the fourth time she’s landed on the World Cup podium – all coming within the past 12 months. The last time Grenier raced in downhill was in the lead-up to the 2019 World Championships, when she suffered a leg injury during training.

The last Canadian woman to win a World Cup downhill medal before Grenier was Larisa Yurkiw in 2016.

Two days after her bronze medal win, Grenier had a very rough crash in the women’s super-G race and had to be helped from the course.

Shaïnah Joseph debuts for Orlando in Pro Volleyball Federation

Ottawa’s Shaïnah Joseph made her Pro Volleyball Federation debut on Friday night as her Orlando Valkyries treated 5,284 fans to a spectacular five-setter won by the visiting Atlanta Fire 20-25, 27-25, 27-25, 16-26, 15-12.

The 28-year-old right-side scored 11 points in the match played at the University of Central Florida’s Addition Financial Arena, which is two hours south of where Joseph starred for the University of Florida Gators.

Orlando will play a 24-game regular season against six other opponents in the PVF’s inaugural campaign, which wraps up just before Team Canada plays its first Volleyball Nations League game on May 14 in Brazil.

Gabriela Dabrowski bows out in Australian Open semi-finals

Gabriela Dabrowski’s quest for a second consecutive Grand Slam tennis title ended in the semi-final round of the Australian Open as she and partner Erin Routliffe fell 7-5, 7-5 to Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok.

Dabrowski and Routliffe made it through four rounds to reach the semis and collected a $227,500 AUS ($201,643.53 CDN) payday.

Dabrowski was also a quarter-finalist in the mixed doubles competition with Nathaniel Lammons, good for $26,500 AUS ($23,488.15 CDN).

She and Routliffe won the U.S. Open last season for their first Grand Slam women’s doubles crown.

Canadian rugby sevens teams post season-low results on world tour

The Canadian women’s rugby sevens team beat Fiji 26-5 to finish a season-worst seventh place at a world series event in Australia.

Canada earlier lost to Great Britain 14-12, beat South Africa 26-7 and fell to the hosts 31-14 in pool play and then were shutout by the Brits 7-0 in a quarter-final rematch.

University of Ottawa Gee-Gees product Maddy Grant of Cornwall played in all five of Canada’s matches.

Canada finished fourth and fifth in the first two events of the season and is currently ranked sixth overall.

Ottawa’s Cody Nhanala also played for the Canadian men’s team in the Australia event. Canada finished at the bottom of the 12-team event to drop to 11th in the series standings.

Vancouver hosts the next world rugby sevens series stop from Feb. 23-25.

Mimi Rahneva returns with 11th place World Cup skeleton result

After missing the first World Cup race of 2024 on her favourite track in St. Moritz, Switzerland due to work commitments, Ottawa’s Mimi Rahneva returned to the global skeleton circuit with a 11th-place performance on Friday in Lillehammer, Norway.

Rahneva posted improved start-time rankings compared to recent seasons, but couldn’t make it down as quickly on the track that was hosting its first-ever World Cup skeleton race. The 35-year-old two-time Olympian won a bronze medal at the World Cup season opener in China and is currently ranked 14th overall on the circuit.

Gee-Gees men’s basketball wins showdown with strong opponent

The #1-ranked university men’s basketball team in the country withstood the challenge from the #4 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks as the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees earned their second home win of the weekend Saturday.

Brock Newton scored 23 points and Jacques-Mélaine Guemeta had 17 as uOttawa beat Laurier 75-67, which came on the heels of a 63-46 win over Waterloo.

“Laurier has some of the best scoring guards in the country. I thought we locked in and got some stops when we needed them,” head coach James Derouin said in a Gee-Gees media release. “There was buzz around this game, #1 versus #4, and that’s how the game played out – a grind-it-out, playoff-style defensive battle. I love it. It was a great game.”

The Gee-Gees will have the unusual tag as Capital Hoops Classic favourites for their next contest on Friday at TD Place when they face the 10-7 Carleton Ravens, who won last year’s Canadian title but are currently outside the national top-10 rankings.

Carleton lost 86-74 to Laurier and beat Waterloo 92-67 this past weekend.

The #2 nationally-ranked Ravens women’s basketball team (16-1) continued their dominance with 43- and 26-point victories over Laurier and Waterloo, while the Gee-Gees (14-3) stumbled in a 60-52 defeat to Waterloo but handled Laurier 80-42.

Kali Pocrnic scored 20 points in both contests to lead the Ravens, who outscored Waterloo 53-26 in the second half after being tied 21-21 at halftime. Emily Payne scored 20 herself in the Gee-Gees’ win.

The Carleton and uOttawa women will also face off in the Capital Hoops Classic. The Ravens’ lone defeat of the season came in their first meeting with the Gee-Gees – a 74-56 loss in their final match before the holiday break on Dec. 6. Ottawa is ranked 10th nationally.