Langelaar wins mass start race, again

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This article was published 20/02/2019 (2136 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been a week speedskater Tyson Langelaar will probably never forget.

The 20-year-old Winnipeg product completed a memorable run at the Canada Winter Games Thursday by winning the men’s mass start race, a chaotic 10-lap event, to bring his amazing haul to four golds and one silver medal.

But the circumstances of the win made it all the more special for Langelaar, who needed to return to the track Thursday to race the event again after a bizarre finish forced organizers to rule Wednesday’s controversial result invalid.

“This is a big story for skating,” said Manitoba team coach Tyler Williamson-Derraugh via telephone. “They raced (the mass start) yesterday and the lap counter got kinda screwed up and the guy that rang the bell rang the bell a lap late, so Tyson timed his attack perfectly and then the bell didn’t come with one (lap) to go. The guy missed the (ringing of the bell) and Tyson came around with a huge lead and then the guy rang the bell but Tyson had anticipated it as the finish.

“So he continued skating but he was pretty gassed and he went for the last lap again, which was an extra lap. In the last straightaway, he got passed by (another competitor). And so, on lap 11 he finished second but lap 10 he had won. There was a big controversy about what to do.”

After a 30-minute delay, officials declared the race would be repeated less than 24 hours later.

This time the bell lap was judged correctly and Langelaar rallied from 300 metres back with three laps to go to win in a time of 5:44.706, with Ontario’s Matthew Laxton and Quebec’s Cedrick Brunet finishing second and third, respectively. A.J. Seddon of Beausejour was 12th.

“It was definitely challenging to keep a positive mindset, I’d say,” said Langelaar. “You expect to be done after that race but I just had to work hard last night to try to get over it and be ready to start racing again this morning. Getting over it took a while, but once I did it was nice to put it in the past and move on.”

Added Tyler Williamson-Derraugh: “To do it again and win is a testament to his character. To perform under adversity and skate clean two times in a row and win twice — it just proved he was the rightful winner of the race.”

Earlier, Langelaar had a first-place finish in Saturday’s 1,500-metre event in a time of 1:56.12, followed by Sunday’s 500 metres with a two-race total of 1:14.73, and finally the top prize in Wednesday’s 1,000 metres in a Canada Games record time of 1:12.79.

His nearly perfect week also included a 6:56.36 clocking in Tuesday’s 5,000 metres, which resulted in a silver medal behind Alberta’s Kaleb Muller, and a fifth-place finish with his Manitoba teammates in Sunday’s team pursuit.

The haul brought Manitoba’s medal count to seven gold, two silver and one bronze.

“I had high expections on myself to try to perform and represent Manitoba to the best of my abilities this week,” said Langelaar. “My main goal was to try to bring home some hardware, so I’m super happy to do as well as I did.”

Langelaar, who trains in Calgary, has a bright future in the sport. He showed exceptional versatility over a variety of distances this week.

“Where skating is today, you’ve gotta start to specialize,” said Williamson-Derraugh. “There’s nobody dominant across all five distances but Tyson has definitely shown his ability to skate in all events. What’s really promising is the future potential for him to skate in the all-round and one day challenge for a world all-round championship.”

In ringette, Manitoba’s gold-medal hopes were dashed in a 7-5 semifinal loss to Quebec Thursday afternoon.

Milica Oravec scored twice and added an assist for the Manitobans, who will play in today’s bronze-medal game. Olivia McCowan, Nicole Girardin and Taylor Hildebrand also scored.

Elsewhere, Manitoba’s male under-17 hockey team secured a spot in Friday’s fifth-place game with a 6-2 win over New Brunswick.

BOXERS BAG SILVER, BRONZE: Manitoba boxers secured a pair of medals as the Games’ boxing competition wrapped up Wednesday night.

Beausejour’s Justice Harbone settled for a silver medal in the 60-kilogram division after losing a close 3-2 decision to B.C.’s Brayden Sims in the gold-medal bout.

Meanwhile, Winnipegger Jawad Miakhail defeated Nova Scotia’s Matthew Fraser and captured the bronze medal by a 5-0 decision in the 56-kilogram division.

In addition, Winnipeg’s Mohammed Makhlouf lost a 4-1 decision to British Columbia’s Jonathan Hannah in the 75-kilogram bronze-medal bout.​

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14