More best-ever results
Salmon Arm’s Wilkie wins gold as Canada enjoys most fruitful Winter Paralympics
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — Canadian cross-country skier Brian McKeever has captured his third gold medal in Pyeonchang, while Paralympic rookie Natalie Wilkie also raced to gold.
McKeever, from Canmore, Alta., with guides Graham Nishikawa and Russell Kennedy, won the visually impaired 10 kilometres on Saturday. McKeever has 13 golds over five Paralympics.
Wilkie, a 17-year-old from Salmon Arm, B.C., won the women’s standing 7.5-kilometre race, while Emily Young of North Vancouver, B.C., claimed bronze.
Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., added a bronze in the standing 10-kilometre race for his fourth medal of the Games.
Their medals, combined with Canada’s curling bronze, boosted Canada’s total to 24, making Pyeongchang the country’s best Winter Paralympics ever.
McKeever became Canada’s most successful winter athlete when he won the 20-kilometre race to open the Games. He then added a victory in the 1.5 kilometre sprint classic.
McKeever also carried Canada’s flag into the opening ceremonies.
Canada’s previous best Paralympic performance was the 19 medals won in 2010 in Vancouver. The team’s goal here was to top the 16 medals from four years ago in Sochi.
Canada is guaranteed another medal Sunday when the hockey team battles the rival Americans for gold.
CANADA’S CURLING TEAM EDGES
SOUTH KOREA FOR BRONZE Canada’s curling team has won bronze at the Pyeongchang Paralympics.
Mark Ideson, Ina Forrest, Dennis Thiessen and Marie Wright edged South Korea 5-3 in Saturday’s bronze-medal game.
It’s not the medal the Canadians were hoping for, as Canada had swept the gold medals since the sport made its Paralympic debut in 2006 in Turin.
Their medal boosted Canada’s bestever total to 22 at these Games.
The Canadians took the ice barely 12 hours after a heartbreaking last-shot loss to China in the semifinals.
Canada, South Korea and China all went 9-2 to finish the preliminary round tied atop the standings.
Wright, a 57-year-old single mother of four daughters from Moose Jaw, Sask., was the lone rookie on this Paralympic team. Forrest, from Armstrong, B.C., is already a two-time Paralympic gold medallist. Ideson, from Ideson, Ont., and Thiessen, from Sanford, Man., were on the team that won gold in Sochi.
The Chinese faced Norway for gold later Saturday.
CANADIAN BIATHLETE CAPTURES ELUSIVE GOLD, WINNING 15K RACE PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — After Mark Arendz missed the top of the Paralympic medal podium four years ago in Sochi, he harnessed that frustration in every training session.
The 28-year-old from Hartsville, P.E.I., won biathlon’s standing 15-kilometre event in Pyeongchang on Friday, finally capturing the one medal missing from his Paralympic collection. It was his fourth medal of these Games.
“All week, every time I step on that podium, I was thinking to myself that I want to hear those words ‘Paralympic champion’ and then my name, and then hear the anthem,” Arendz said. “I’ve seen the Maple Leaf on that podium a few times now with teammates, but to finally be up there myself with that anthem, that’s going to be an amazing feeling.”
His medal boosted Canada’s total to 19, tying the team’s best-ever performance from Vancouver in 2010, and three better than the team won four years ago in Sochi — with two days of competition remaining. With Canada’s Para hockey team facing the U.S. in Sunday’s final, Canada is guaranteed a best-ever finish.
Arendz, who lost his left arm after he toppled into a grain auger on his family farm at the age of seven, missed gold four years ago in Sochi by just seven tenths of a second.
“That .7 has been driving my training for the last four years, and finally to put it together here, to get that gold and by a fair margin too, that means everything, everything’s come together finally,” he said.
“It’s a small thing that made a big impact over the last four years. It was the driving force that made me train on those days that were kind of tough to get out of bed, I said ‘OK, I have to go think about making up that .7.’
Friday he did just that. Arendz shot a perfect 20-for-20, and finished in 42 minutes 52.2 seconds. Benjamin Daviet of France took the silver in 43:50.5, while Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset was third (44:06.7).
“This race is kind of to my strengths,” he said. “It’s a shooting race, you have to go clean, and process was key today, just to make sure that I hit those 20 targets, and once I got to that last bout, through 15 for 15 I knew I wasn’t going to miss so I made sure of every shot before I pulled that trigger, and in the end I was clean, and that was the way I really needed that race to be.”
Arendz already had raced to a silver and bronze in biathlon here, plus a bronze in cross-country skiing’s 1.5-kilometre sprint classic.
Collin Cameron of Bracebridge, Ont., started Friday’s march to the podium, winning bronze in the sitting 15K race.
Then Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., added bronze in the women’s standing 12.5K race.
On the final lap, Emily Young of North Vancouver knew a medal was out of reach because of missed shots, and so tucked in front of Hudak and paced her to the finish line.
“Seeing Emily ahead of me, she basically pulled me around the course on the last lap, yelling at me,” Hudak said. “I don’t know how she was even able to yell at me, I was moving so hard.”
“I was just yelling at her to not be dropped by me, I was breaking the wind,” Young said. “It was so good, I’m so proud of her.”