Christine Nesbitt of Canada reacts after skating in the women's 1000-metre event at the Essent ISU speed skating World Cup in Chelyabinsk on Sunday.GRIGORY DUKOR
Christine Nesbitt picked up two more gold medals on the World Cup circuit Sunday.
The London, Ont., native won gold in the women's 1,000 metres at the speedskating event in Chelyabinsk, Russia, then led Cindy Klassen and Brittany Schussler — both from Winnipeg — to gold in the women's team pursuit.
"I think I had a pretty good 1,000 today," said Nesbitt. "I felt really strong, but technically wasn't very good, a little bit out of control. But I'm happy with the results.
"I think that it's definitely a sign that I'm pretty fit and strong right now, but I have a lot to work on still."
Nesbitt took first in the solo event in one minute 15.97 seconds, ahead of Margot Boer (1:16.52) and Marrit Leenstra (1:16.77), both of the Netherlands.
Winnipeg's Shannon Rempel was 18th (1:18.21), Calgary's Anastasia Bucsis was 21st (1:18.82) and Klassen finished 22nd (1:19.04).
In division B, Tamara Oudenaarden, of St. Albert, Alta., was ninth (1:19.41) in her first race of the season.
The women's pursuit team won gold with a time of 3:02.07, ahead of the Netherlands (3:02.72) and Russia (3:03.37).
Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., added a medal for Canada, winning bronze in the men's 1,000 metres with a time of 1:09.26. Stefan Groothuis of the Netherlands won gold (1:08.49) and his teammate Kjeld Nuis (1:08.56) earned silver.
"It's nice to be on the podium this time of year," said Morrison. "I still think there's lots of room for improvement though. I'm looking forward to the rest of the World Cup races this fall."
Joining Morrison in the men's 1,000-metre race were Edmonton's Jamie Gregg, who placed 12th (1:10.37), Regina's Kyle Makowsky in 20th (1.11.10) and Calgary's Gilmore Junio finished 21st (1:11.21).
In the B division, Kyle Parrott of Minnedosa, Man., was ninth (1:11.37) in his first event of the World Cup season.
In the men's team pursuit, Morrison, Toronto's Jordan Belchos and Philippe Riopel of Lachenaie, Que., paced Canada to a ninth place finish (3:49.25).
The Netherlands (3:41.25), United States (3:44.52) and Germany (3:45.29) won medals.