Para cross-country skier Natalie Wilkie placed a bow on 2024 with a World Cup triumph on Friday at the season-opening drop in Vuokatti, Finland.
The 23-year-old from Salmon Arm, B.C., won the 10-kilometre mass begin race in the females’s standing group, completing 8 secs in advance of Norway’s Vilde Nilsen with a time of 32 mins 44.8 secs.
Fellow Canadian Paralympian Brittany Hudak ( 34:28.3) missed out on the platform by one place behind China’s Zhao Zhiqing after a sprint surface.
Wilkie, a seven-time Paralympic medallist, is off to a solid begin in both the cross-country and biathlon techniques. She took home silver in the sprint standard on Tuesday behind Nilsen, together with 2 biathlon gold medals to open up the period in Vuokatti.
Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., caught his 5th general medal in Vuokatti with bronze in the guys’s standing mass begin, going across the surface in 31:34.5. It was a 1-2 Chinese completed with Wang Chenyang declaring gold in advance of countrymate Liu Xiaobin in 29:55.2.
The 34-year-old Arendz, that additionally completed third in Tuesday’s sprint standard, leads the general World Cup positions in his group with 273 factors — 18 factors in advance of Wang.
The cross-country World Cup period returns toFeb 1-2 in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
ENJOY l Arendz wants to level up this period:
Canadian Para biathlete is encouraged by last period’s success.
