Ivanie Blondin overcomes virus to earn silver in long track mass start

Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin won her third medal in two World Cup stages so far this season, taking silver in the women's mass start at the ISU World Cup long track speed skating event in Nagano, Japan on Sunday.

After a virus earlier this week forced Blondin to withdraw from the 1000-metre and 3000m races, she finished behind South Korea's Bo-Reum Kim. Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy was third.

"A podium is a podium and I'm really happy about the silver," said Blondin. who won gold in the mass start and bronze in the 3000m in China last week.

"I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it today because of how sick I've been all week."

The three podium finishers are also at the head of the World Cup standings. Blondin leads with 180 points, ahead of Kim who has 170 and Lollobrigida with 150.

Groundhog Day for Hudey

It was Groundhog Day for Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., in the 500-m race, as she took fourth place for the third time in a row this season.

Paired with world record holder Sang-Hwa Lee (37.93) of South Korea, who collected silver in Sunday's race, Hudey skated to a time of 38.04 seconds to finish fourth. Japan's Nao Kodaira (37.75) won gold and China's Jing Yu (37.97) earned bronze. Heather McLean (38.40) of Winnipeg, MB, was 11th and Noémie Fiset (39.32) of Quebec City, QC, was 18th.

"It was a great opportunity considering my pair today, because Sang-Hwa Lee is such an exceptional skater," said Hudey.

"I just wanted to make most of the opportunity and try to put together the most beautiful race I could.

Fiola, Boisvert-Lacroix, Morrison promoted

In the B group races, Christopher Fiola of Montreal, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix of Sherbrooke, Que., and Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., were all able to qualify for the A division in their respective events ahead of the next World Cup stage, which will take place Dec. 2-4 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In the men's 1500m, Denny Morrison was third in the B group with a time of 1:48.26.

"It reminded me of the Olympics in some ways," said Morrison.

"I skated my race and it was what it was. I watched the other pairs to see where I ended up ranking. I kept seeing all the times coming in and realizing that I wasn't being pushed down, or at least not too far. It was really exciting and a pretty emotional thing during the Olympics, and it was kind of similar today."