Natalie Wilkie remporte deux médailles d’or à la finale de la Coupe du monde de parabiathlon

TORSBY, Sweden – A super season continued for Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm, B.C. as she won the first two races at the Para biathlon World Cup final on the weekend.

On Saturday she took the women’s standing 7.5 kilometre sprint, and on Sunday the 12.5 kilometre individual. She shot cleanly in both races.

After capturing Saturday’s race by a mere three hundredths of a second, she won Sunday’s race by three full minutes. Ukraine’s Liudmyla Liashenko and Oleksandra Kononova rounded out the podium.

Mark Arendz of Hartsville, PEI took silver in the men’s standing sprint and bronze in the individual.

In the 12.5 kilometre event, he finished behind Frenchmen Benjamin Daviet and Karl Tabouret, first and second. Almost perfect throughout the season in the shooting range, Arendz missed three of 20 targets.

‘’I had a frustrating and disappointing performance today in the individual, but the result was a surprise,’’ wrote Arendz on his Instagram account.

‘’Not that the legs felt great, but I was skiing extremely well, setting the fastest time by a margin. However, I struggled on the range.”

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He was second to Ukrainian Serhii Romaniuk in the sprint.

‘’What the volunteers and crew did with the limited snow is amazing, creating great conditions,” said Arendz about the sprint. ‘’I used those conditions to great effect, but a mistake and a miss in my second shooting bout cost me a chance to make it a ski race for the win.’’

The competition continues Tuesday with the pursuit final which will finalize the Crystal Globe champions for the season. In the overall standings, Arendz leads the men’s standing and Wilkie is second in the women’s standing.