Cross Country Canada —Arendz sits in third spot in overall Para-Nordic World Cup standings, 10 points out of second with one race remaining—

SAPPORO, JPN.—Mark Arendz added another silver to his medal haul over the last month on the World Para-Nordic World Cup circuit.

Arendz battled to a silver medal in the difficult standing classification field for the men’s 12.5-kilometre biathlon race. The Hartsville, P.E.I. resident clocked a time of 30:31.2 on the hard-packed snow in Sapporo, Japan on Tuesday.

“Overall I’m pleased with the day’s effort. I was able to keep the speed up after a long season and lots of racing,” said Arendz, who has celebrated five medals at the recent World Championships followed by adding three more trips to the podium at last week’s Para-Nordic Test Event in PyeongChang.

Perfect in his first two of four trips on the shooting range after completing both of his opening 2.5-kilometre loops, the 26-year-old jumped into second place despite missing one target in his third bout. Arendz cleaned his final round of shots before hammering the pace in his final lap to secure his first medal at the Para-Nordic World Cup Finals.

“The third bout of shooting was by far my worst and that is where my single miss came from,” added Arendz. “In the end, shooting clean would have earned me top spot on the podium, but with my miss, I had to settle for second place. The focus now is to recover as best as I can for the final race of the season tomorrow.”

The 26-year-old Arendz has been chasing Benjamin Daviet, of France, on the Nordic trails around the world all season, and Tuesday was no different. Daviet, who has all but officially won the overall Para-Nordic World Cup title, finished on top again with a time of 30:13.5 (0+1+0+1).

Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset, finished in third spot in Sapporo with a time of 30:44.4.

Arendz and his longtime rival Ulset will be in an all-out battle for second place in the overall standings during the final race of the season Wednesday – a 7.5-kilometre biathlon competition. Ulset currently holds a 10-point lead over Canada’s two-time Paralympic medallist.

Vancouver’s Emily Young was the only other Canadian to hit the start line on Tuesday for the ninth time in the last two weeks. Young shot clean en route to finishing eighth in the women’s standing classification with a time of 34:00.3.

The Ukraine women stole the show in the standing division, grabbing the top-four spots in the standings. Oleksandra Kononova set the golden pace at 29:15.9 (0+2+0+0). Iryna Bui was second at 31:11.8 (1+1+0+1), while Liudmyla Liashenko completed the sweep after stopping the clock at 31:42.0 (0+4+1+2).

Complete Results: https://www.paralympic.org/nordic-skiing/calendar-results

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Chris Dornan

Media and Public Relations

Cross Country Canada

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