Canada's Mark Arendz captures biathlon gold at Para nordic World Cup finals

Canada's Mark Arendz struck gold in the men's standing 12.5-kilometre individual biathlon event at the Para nordic World Cup finals on Saturday in Midway, Utah.

The 32-year-old from Hartsville, P.E.I., used a combination of fast skiing and sharp shooting to top the podium with a time of 33 minutes 25 seconds at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center.

Arendz, a four-time Paralympian, won silver in the event at the Beijing Paralympics in March 2022.

Arendz delivered near-perfect shooting on Sunday, with just one miss in 20 shots across four rounds. A one-minute penalty for every missed shot is added to the total time.

"I had that one mistake on the range where I lost focus for a fraction of a second, but I could rely on my skiing to pull me out of trouble and onto the top step of the podium," Arendz said.

Ukrainian Paralympian Grygorii Vovchynskyi also shot well but had to settle for silver in 33:54.2, while France's Benjamin Daviet went on to finish third in 36:10.8 after he was unable to recover from two misses in his first stop at the range.

Arendz also reached the podium on Thursday, with silver in the men's 5km skate-ski race.

Christina Picton added to Canada's medal haul on Sunday, claiming bronze in the women's 12.5-kilometre sit-ski event.

The 29-year-old from Fonthill, Ont., finished with a time of 54:36.6, giving Canada 11 medals through three days of competition at Soldier Hollow.

American Kendall Gretsch, who earned silver in the event at the 2022 Paralympics, won gold in 46:05.3.

Germany's Anja Wicker finished ahead of Picton for silver (46:58.3).

Salmon Arm, B.C, native Natalie Wilkie finished fourth in the women's standing race in 40:20.7, while Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., was fifth (40:48.2).