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Canada's Arendz takes gold at Para Nordic World Cup as Hudak, Picton each earn silver

Canada's Mark Arendz, seen above at the 2022 Paralympics, won biathlon gold at a World Cup event in Finland on Friday. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images - image credit)
Canada's Mark Arendz, seen above at the 2022 Paralympics, won biathlon gold at a World Cup event in Finland on Friday. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images - image credit)

Mark Arendz highlighted a three-medal day for Canada with his second straight gold at the Para Nordic World Cup in Vuokatti, Finland on Friday.

The Hartsville, P.E.I., native took the top spot on the podium after winning the standing 10-kilometre biathlon with a time of 28 minutes 30.4 seconds.

The 32-year old has to overcoming struggles on the shooting range, where he missed three of his first ten shots.

"I wasn't as focused as I needed to be on the range," said Arendz, who skied a 150-metre penalty loop for each missed shot.

"I was happy to be able to stop the early slide, refocus and bring back the performance to the level I expect of myself."

Rounding out the second and third spots on the podium were Ukrainian Grygorii Vovchynskyi with a time of 28:42:4 and French skier Benjamin Daviet, who clocked a time of 29:36.

In the women's10-kilometre biathlon, Canada's Brittany Hudak earned her third consecutive silver medal in Finland.

The 29-year-old only missed one shot on the range and skied and stopped the clock at 32:05.2, taking silver on an otherwise all-Ukrainian podium. Liudmyla Liashenko won gold at 31:51.6, while Bohdana Konashuk won bronze at 33:47.7.

Meanwhile, Canada's Christina Picton won her fourth medal of the World Cup opener, scoring silver in the women's sit ski biathlon.

The Fonthill, Ont., native, finished the race at43:29.2 with two missed shots. German skier Anja Wicker finished  first with a time of 36:58.4 while Korea's Yunji Kim brought home bronze at 43:38.6.

Derek Zaplotinsky (Smoky Lake, Alta.), finished the men's sit-ski in fourth with a time of 34:59.

The World Cup continues on Saturday with the team sprint event.