Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., skates to a sliver medal in the women's 1,500-metre World Cup event at Heerenveen, Netherlands. Kristina Groves of Ottawa won bronze. Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., skates to a sliver medal in the women's 1,500-metre World Cup event at Heerenveen, Netherlands. Kristina Groves of Ottawa won bronze. (Bas Czerwinski/Associated Press)

Canadian speedskaters won two medals Sunday during a World Cup long-track speedskating event in Heerenveen, the Netherlands.

Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., and Kristina Groves of Ottawa finished 2-3 in the women's 1,500-metre competition. Nesbitt finished with a time of 1:57.58 to take the silver medal. Groves crossed the line at 1:58.40 to win bronze.

"I was pretty nervous before my race, but when the gun went off I opened really fast, one of my fastest openers in the 1500 and I had a great first lap," said Nesbitt. "I have been on the road for four weeks now and have been struggling a bit with my technique."

German Anni Freisinger took the gold medal, finishing with a time of 1:57.48, one-10th of a second faster than Nesbitt.

Groves, who leads the overall World Cup standings in the 1,500 metres, has made the podium twice in two days. She won a bronze in the 5,000-metre World Cup event on Saturday. Nesbitt sits in third overall for the 1,500-metres.

The pair are also tops in the 1,000-metre standings, with Nesbitt sitting in first and Groves in second.

"It is a neat thing for us and shows how strong we are as a team," Groves said. "The depth on our team has just gotten better and better in the last few years.

"It is a pretty great team to be on. I have to say it wasn't my best skating. I wasn't quite as focused as I could've been. For me, I was pretty surprised with my end result just because I didn't think I skated my best. I was happy to be on the podium."

Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg finished seventh in Sunday's 1,500-metre event, with a time of 1:59.87.

In the other event of the day, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands won the men's 10,000-metre race with a time of 13:03.51, six seconds better than Havard Bokko of Norway. Dutch skater Bob de Jong finished third.

Kramer, the defending European and all-around champion, leads the men's 10,000-metre standings with 400 points, 35 more than Bokko, who sits in second.

With files from Canadian Press