Canada’s Natalie Wilkie sprinted to her first Para nordic world championship title in cross-country snowboarding with a victory within the girls’s standing skate-ski dash race on Tuesday in Österland, Sweden.
The seven-time Paralympic medallist posted the highest qualifying time within the heats earlier than she received each of her rounds on the one-kilometre dash course.
“Claiming the gold medal as we speak was additional particular,” stated Wilkie, of Salmon Arm, B.C.
“Anything can occur in a dash race and the competitors is so sturdy, so it feels actually good. This course is hilly and has a number of quick corners and downhills. I really feel I’m sturdy on the corners and the quick situations made it thrilling.
Wilkie held off Norway’s Vilde Nilsen for the highest spot on the rostrum whereas Sydney Petersen, of the United States, claimed bronze.
“In the ultimate, the technique was to carry on so long as I can,” stated the 22-year-old. “In the ultimate downhill, I used to be planning to slingshot out of the nook and preserve the lead till the tip which I’m completely satisfied I used to be capable of do.”
Wilkie kicked off the 2023 world championship by successful her first biathlon title on her twenty second birthday Saturday earlier than she claimed silver within the long-distance classic-ski race on Sunday. Wilkie additionally has two silver medals from the 2019 world championships, which brings her profession whole to 5.
“I positively really feel totally different at these world championships,” Wilkie added. “I’m now heading into these races understanding that I at all times have a very good likelihood of successful, so I do have a variety of confidence.”
Canada had two males compete within the sit-ski dash ultimate. Derek Zaplotinsky of Smoky Lake, Alta., was fifth, whereas Collin Cameron, of Bracebridge, Ont., who received the dash occasion on the 2019 world championships, completed sixth.
Kazakhstan’s Yerbol Khamitov received the boys’s sit-ski race.
Christina Picton, of Fonthill, Ont., was the lone Canadian within the girls’s sit-ski dash occasion the place she claimed a sixth-place end of her personal.
Mark Arendz additionally earned a spot within the finals of the boys’s standing dash occasion. Arendz, of Hartsville, P.E.I., positioned fifth.
The Para nordic world championship continues on Wednesday with the 10km particular person begin biathlon competitions.
