Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann races to 3,000m silver at speed skating worlds

Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann had to wait, and wait, and wait. In the end, all that patience paid off.

The Ottawa native earned silver in the women’s 3,000 metres at the speed skating world championships on Thursday in Calgary.

Skating in the fourth group of 10 as a result of a bumpy World Cup season, the three-time Olympic medallist stopped the clock in three minutes 58.01 seconds, handing her what was at the time an eight-second lead with 12 of the top skaters still to go.

Schouten, who won three gold medals including the 3,000 at the Beijing Olympics, came in at 3:57.10 to clip the Canadian. Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic rounded out the podium with bronze at 3:58.33.

Maltais, who was third in the season’s long-distance standings, placed 10th at 4:06.17, while fellow Canadian Ivanie Blondin was sixth at 4:03.14.

Weidemann, 28, won three medals of each colour in Beijing, including bronze in the 3,000. But she endured a slow start to her season, missing podiums and eventually skipping two World Cup events to take something of a reset. She then placed fourth in the 3,000 at the World Cup finale in Quebec City.

Now, the Canadian speed skating stars appears to be right back on track.

Live coverage of the world championships continues on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.