PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – Mark Arendz of Hartsville, PEI was perfect in the shooting range Thursday on route to the gold medal in the men’s 12.5 kilometre men’s standing race at the inaugural Para biathlon world championships.
Natalie Wilkie also collected her second medal of the event with bronze in the women’s standing race.
Arendz, the 7.5 kilometre winner on Wednesday clocked 35 minutes 01.2 seconds for the win.
He beat Paralympic Games champion Benjamin Daviet of France, second in 36:40 while Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine was third in 37:01.7
‘’Knocking out the cobwebs yesterday to excel today,’’ stated Arendz, a 12-time Paralympic Games medallist over the last four Games, on his Instagram account. ‘’I took control from the start and continuously applied the pressure.
‘’Solid performance on the range, going clean, but a few were close.’’
In the women’s standing event, Ukraine's Liudmyla Liashenko was the victor in 39:25.9 and China's Zhao Zhiqing won silver in 40:17.7. They were 1-2 at the 20222 Paralympics as well. Wilkie, the 7.5 kiolmetre gold medallist Wednesday, followed in 41:11.1.
Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., took fourth place.
Canada to face Norway for gold at wheelchair curling worlds
Canada defeated Sweden 4-2 on Friday to advance to the gold medal at the wheelchair curling world championships in Gangneung, South Korea.
Silver medallists last year, the Canadians are looking for their first world gold since 2013.
“Sweden always brings out the best in us,” said Canada’s skip and lead Mark Ideson of London, Ont about the semifinal match. “It was a great battle tonight and it feels good to come away with a win.”
Joining Ideson on the ice were fourth Jon Thurston of Dunford, Ont., third Ina Forrest of Spallumcheen, B.C., and second Gil Dash of Wolseley, Sask.
The Canadians scored two points in the sixth end to take a 3-2 lead when Thurston made his draw to the eight-foot, then stole another point in the seventh.
“It was a cautious game for sure,” said Ideson. “There’s not a ton of mistakes out there so you have to capitalize on the ones that you get. You know, that was sort of our game plan going in—just to be patient—and it worked out this time.”
In the other semi, Norway upset defending champions China 7-3.
Canada beat Norway 8-0 in round robin play.
Sweden will play China, skipped by Haitao Wang, in the bronze medal game.
The gold and bronze medal games will take place Friday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET. (Saturday morning in South Korea)
All games are available to watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@curling1.
