RICHMOND, B.C. - The Canadian trio of Kristina Groves, Christine Nesbitt and Brittany Schussler won gold in the women's team pursuit Sunday at the world singles distances speedskating championships.
Canada clocked two minutes 58.25 seconds to easily outdistance the Dutch time of 3:02.02.
Japan grabbed the bronze at 3:04.06.
It was the third medal at these championships for both Nesbitt, from London, Ont., and Groves, from Ottawa, and the first for Winnipeg's Schussler. Canada now has eight medals at the event overall (two gold, two silver, four bronze).
Earlier, Germany's Jenny Wolf won gold in the women's 500 metres for the third straight year while South Korea's Kang-Seok Lee grabbed the men's crown.
Wolf posted a combined two-run time of one minute 15.750 seconds to beat out Wang Beixing of China's 1:15.870. San-Hwa Lee of South Korea took bronze in 1:16.390.
''I was a little bit lucky that her second race wasn't that good,'' Wolf said of Wang. ''I knew I could skate around three-tenths faster than in my first race because I made a big mistake.''
Tamara Oudenaarden of St. Albert, Alta., was the top Canadian in 18th at 1:19.390 in her first world championships. Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 20th in 1:19.480 while Kim Weger of Regina was 22nd in 1:20.250.
''I've never been to a single distances championships before so it's really cool to be here with the Canadian team that's so strong right now,'' said Oudenaarden, 21. ''I got a feel for what the Olympics are going to feel like and hopefully one day I can to the Olympics, here especially.''
Rempel lost a second in her second race because of confusion on the lane crossover with pair Judith Hesse, slowing down to yield to the German.
''That's a fear a lot for me because my opener isn't that fast,'' she said. ''Either I come out even or I kind of let them go so I come up even or I kind of let them go and there wasn't enough time to get over.
''She had the right of way so I just glided.''
Lee clocked 1:09.730 to win the men's 500 over teammate Kyou-Hyuk Lee at 1:09.920 and favourite Yu Fengtong of China at 1:09.970.
Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was eighth in 1:00.370, while Muncef Ouardi of Montreal was 14th in 1:11.260 and Vincent Labrie of Levis, Que., was 17th in 111.590.
''Definitely I could be a lot stronger,'' Gregg said when asked what he needs to do to take the next step. ''If you look at the guys' legs, they're freaking huge, so I've got to work on that.''
American Shani Davis was sixth after the first race in 35.19 but had some issues in the second to post a combined time of 92.220, last among the 22 skaters to finish the race.
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