STAVANGER, Norway — Calgary’s Gilmore Junio won bronze in Sunday’s men’s 500-metre race at a stop on the ISU World Cup long-track speedskating tour.
Junio skated to a time of 34.86 seconds two days after missing the podium by one hundredth of a second in Friday’s 500 race. Russian skaters Pavel Kulizhnikov (34.52) and Ruslan Murashov (34.78) collected gold and silver, as they did in Friday’s 500.
The result earned Junio a spot at the World Single Distance Championships, which will take place Feb. 11-14 in Kolomna, Russia.
Winning a medal was kind of bittersweet today, because I had to do it against teammates and friends," Junio said.
"It’s a shame we can’t take our entire team to the World Single Distance Championships, because I know we have a great team, with a lot of depth."
Calgary’s William Dutton finished seventh in 34.97. Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., was eighth, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix of Sherbrooke, Que., was ninth and Alexandre St-Jean of Quebec City was 15th.
Kaylin Irvine of Calgary registered the fastest Canadian time in the women’s 1,000 metres over the weekend, which earned her the sole spot available to Canada at the World Single Distance Championships.
Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann qualified for the 3,000 with an 11th place finish.