CALGARY - Kristina Groves of Ottawa won gold in the 1,500 metres and was followed by teammate Christine Nesbitt at a long track speed skating World Cup event on Saturday.

Groves, skating in the last pairing, clocked one minute 54.35 seconds to bump Nesbitt into second.

Nesbitt, from London, Ont., finished in 1:54:43.

Elma de Vries of the Netherlands won bronze in 1:54:60, preventing a Canadian sweep of the podium.

Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg was fourth in 1:54:85.

Earlier in the day, world-record holder Jeremy Wotherspoon returned to World Cup speed skating by clocking 34.65 seconds to win a 500-metre B race, a solid building block in his comeback.

The sprint star from Red Deer, Alta., was inserted into the B race after Jamie Gregg of Edmonton gave up his spot in the A race, and raced to one of his best times of the season.

While there were some parts of his race he wasn't happy with, Wotherspoon was pleased overall with his first skate at this level since breaking his left arm in six spots at last year's season-opener in Berlin.

"The best thing was getting back to this kind of racing environment,'' said Wotherspoon. "I haven't done it in over a year at a top competition, so there's some nerves that I felt that I wasn't used to since it's been a while, and some energy I had to contain a little differently than I have in training races. So it was good practice for that.''

A spot had to be opened for up Wotherspoon because he didn't qualify to compete for Canada's World Cup team in the 500, the distance at which he's long dominated and established the world record of 34.03 seconds in 2007.

Gregg, who won a bronze in the 500 on Friday, took one for the team by surrendering his spot having already earned the first World Cup podium of his career. Mike Ireland of Winnipeg, whose wife gave birth to a daughter early Saturday morning, went from the hospital right to the oval to race in the A group later in the day.

"(Gregg) was the guy who thought perhaps he could afford to do it the most in some ways,'' said Brian Rahill, Speed Skating Canada's sport director. "It was very much an indication of the closeness of the sprint group and how the feel about each other and for each other.''

Added Wotherspoon, who was told of the decision late Friday: "It's a good sign of how tight our team is and how they want to do the best they can, but they also want to help the guys they train with do the best they can, too. It took someone else being pretty selfless to do that.''

Another of Canada's sprinters will likely need to make the sacrifice again at next week's World Cup in Salt Lake City, since despite a solid time and a decisive win, Wotherspoon clearly needs the work. Dmitry Lobkov of Russia was second in 34.87 followed by Vincent Labrie of Saint-Romuald, Que., in third at 34.95.

The long powerful stride that is Wotherspoon's trademark is getting to where it needs to be, but isn't there yet, and his general racing was also rusty.

"It's pretty specific stuff,'' he said. "Transferring speed from the straightaways into the turns, and just maintaining my body position and direction of push during the race. Some of those things, I think I rushed a bit, started pushing back a couple of times. The first turn I could have built a lot more speed than I did, that's something to learn from.

"I might have been trying too hard and got my mind a little off track of my race plan. That's why it's good to get back out.''