Canada's pursuit team will earn medal

Men will take at least silver, women suffer bitter defeat

Last Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010 | 8:28 PM ET

By Chris Iorfida, CBC Sports

Canadian speedskaters Denny Morrison, right, Lucas Makowsky and Mathieu Giroux, back, twice set an Olympic on Friday en route to advancing to the gold medal final. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

With a little something to prove, the Canadian men's speedskating pursuit team guaranteed themselves a medal by defeating Norway in the semifinals at the Richmond Oval on Friday.

The Canadian men's team of Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., Lucas Makowsky of Regina and Mathieu Giroux of Montreal posted an Olympic record time of three minutes 42.22 seconds.

They shaved time off the record they had just set earlier in the day by knocking off Italy in their quarter-final.

The result guarantees Canada will finish with at least 20 medals at the Vancouver Games.

"I think it was a little unexpected, but when three guys skate well together, good things like this happen," said Makowsky. "I don't think we expected that we would skate this fast out there, especially to do it twice like that an hour and a half apart.

"But we kept it together and now we're really happy."

The gold-medal final is at 12:50 p.m. PT on Saturday.

Makowsky and especially Morrison had suffered disappointing results in individual events at the Games, but will now win at least silver. Morrison is the only holdover from the squad that won silver at the 2006 Torino Games.

"It comes down to having a plan, having a strategy and following it," said Morrison. "Each one of us has a job to do in each different part of the race ,and it makes it easy for us to focus on that job and not the whole race. It makes it easier."

Canada will take on the United States, which upset a Netherlands team that included gold medallists Sven Kramer and Mark Tuitert.

"I came here to the Olympics for three gold medals and I got just one," said Kramer, who would have won gold in the 10,000 if not for a line violation that got him disqualified. "I know that sounds a little strange, but I expected more."

U.S. beats Canadian women

The Canadian men's result also helped improve morale among the fans at the oval after the women's pursuit team was shockingly eliminated Friday in the quarter-finals.

The U.S. women's team defeated Canada by 5-100ths of a second.

The Canadian team was made up of Kristina Groves of Ottawa, Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., and Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg.

The same trio set a world record of two minutes 55.79 seconds in Calgary in December and came into the Olympics ranked first in the world.

"This is one of the biggest disappointments I've experienced in my skating career," said Groves, calling it a "bummer."

Canada had the third fastest out of eight results in the quarters, but in the pursuit, it's the head-to-head result that matters.

Groves won silver in the 1,500 and bronze in the 3,000 earlier in the Games, while Nesbitt took gold in the 1,000.

The result completes a disastrous Olympics for Schussler, who had a skate problem prior to finishing 35th in the 1,500. She was ranked fifth at the distance on the World Cup circuit.

The U.S. team of veteran Jennifer Rodriguez, Jilleanne Rookard and Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. crossed in 3:02.19 seconds to advance to the semifinals Saturday to take on Germany.

The other semifinal pits Japan against Poland, as teams from the Netherlands and Russia were also upset.

The U.S. men's team is comprised of four-time Olympic medallist Chad Hedrick and two skaters just shy of their 20th birthday, Jonathan Kuck and Brian Hansen.

Shani Davis declined to be part of the pursuit team in order to focus on his individual events.