Canada's Mark Arendz, Natalie Wilkie capture gold on home snow at Para biathlon worlds

Canada kicked off the inaugural Para Biathlon World Championships with a pair of gold medals on Wednesday in Prince George, B.C.

Paralympic veterans Mark Arendz and Natalie Wilkie won the men's and women's 7.5-kilometre standing sprint events at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.

The 33-year-old Arendz posted a time of 21 minutes 05.5 seconds to finish ahead of Ukrainian Serhii Romaniuk (21:26) and Germany's Marco Maier (21:58), who beat Arendz for Paralympic silver in 2022.

Arendz was happy to claim his first-ever win at Caledonia after falling short of a world title at the same venue in 2019.

"It's exciting to finally do that. Maybe that was one of the biggest things for me, was not to not to start off like I did all of world championships last time in 2019," Arendz said. "I have the win; I know I'm capable of it, and now it's just continuing that throughout the week and into next as well."

Salmon Arm, B.C.'s Wilkie tied fellow Olympic gold medallist Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine for top spot on the women's sprint podium, with both biathletes clocking 24:11.3. Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., won bronze with a time of 24:51.7.

"Biathlon has been kind of like hit or miss this year, so having clean shooting and a win in the first race for Para world biathlon world championships is pretty awesome," Wilkie said. "I'm really happy with that."

In other Canadian results, Derek Zaplotinsky of Smoky Lake, Alta., finished one spot off the podium in the men's 7.5km sitting sprint.

Bracebridge, Ont., native Collin Cameron is also competing in Prince George.

The Para biathlon worlds run through Sunday. The world championships will be followed by the World Cup finals at Caledonia from March 13-17.