More Games medals for Manitoba in speedskating

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This article was published 18/02/2019 (2138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tyson Langelaar is leading the way for Team Manitoba at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta.

Langelaar, who turned 20 on Sunday, celebrated his birthday weekend in style by winning two gold medals for the province.

The Winnipeg speedskater’s first gold came in the 1,500-metre long track race on Saturday with a time of 1:56.12. Alberta’s Kaleb Muller finished in second at 1:57.55.

On Sunday, Langelaar captured another gold, this time in the 500 metres. His total time after two races was 1:14.73, edging out Quebec’s Cédrick Brunet’s time of 1:15.27. Langelaar continued to add to Manitoba’s medal total on Tuesday, as he grabbed a silver medal in the 5,000-metre race. Muller came away with the gold in that one, as his 6:52.95 time topped Langelaar’s 6:56.36.

Langelaar will have two more opportunities to medal, as he will race in the 1,000 metre and mass start races on Wednesday. Langelaar, who said he’s feeling confident going into his final two events, won gold in the mass start event at the 2015 Games when he was 15 years old.

“It would mean a lot, especially since it’s Manitoba’s medals, too,” said Langelaar on what it would mean to leave the Games with five medals. “I think earning medals for the home province is always special and I’d be honoured to do that.”

Langelaar wasn’t the only skater to medal for Manitoba on Tuesday, as Clandeboye’s Alexa Scott will also be bringing home gold. Scott, 17, dominated the 3,000-metre long track race, finishing with a time of 4:33.83 — a new Canada Games record. Scott’s closest competitor was Quebec’s Rose-Anne Grenier, who claimed the silver at 4:42.23. Similar to Langelaar, Scott isn’t done yet, as she will also be racing in the 1,000 metre and mass start races on Wednesday.

Outside of Langelaar and Scott, the closest Manitoba has come to the podium is in the male table tennis team event, with Gordon Chow, Harrison Deng and Jeremy Tran finishing in fourth. In the female speedskating team pursuit. Scott and her teammates Ashley Hannah, Kennedy Charles and Chloé Beauchesne missed a bronze medal by less than a second, as British Columbia’s 3:44.99 edged out their time of 3:45.33 to finish in third.

Langelaar said despite a somewhat slow start by the province in the overall medal standings, people back home shouldn’t press the panic button.

“I think Manitoba, you’ll see in the next few days as a province, we’ll up that medal count,” Langelaar said. “I think we can do that. I think next week in week two that there’s a lot of talented athletes from our province that I think can do really well. I’m not too worried about our medal count not being so high right now because I think it can go up really, really soon.”

The Games kicked off Feb. 15 and run till March 3.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31