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Golden again

Daviet remains the standing king, Arendz nails second silver
para
Canada’s Kyle Barber takes aim on the biathlon range during the Men’s Individual Standing Long Distance race. – Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Mark Arendz cranked out his best race so far in the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships and by his own high standards there wasn't much the 2018 Paralympic champion could have done better.

The 28-year-old Canadian nailed all 20 targets on the shooting range and was fast on his skis from start to finish in Thursday's men's standing biathlon 15-kilometre race.

And still it wasn't enough to beat Benjamin Daviet.

Daviet's lone miss, on his third shooting bout, gave Arendz hope he might finally dethrone the flying Frenchman who has done nothing but win races this week at Otway Nordic Centre.

For Daviet, his fifth gold medal of the championships proved his most difficult, mentally and physically. He collapsed in exhaustion at the finish as Arendz came over to congratulate him and help him remove his skis.

"For sure that was the hardest race of the week, you know if you miss a bullet you have to ski harder after that (to make up the one-minute penalty) so even though I missed one I made it up on my skis and it was a nice race for me," said Daviet, through an interpreter.

"I missed a bullet at the second shoot and the race was long after that. I didn't have to excite myself on my skis and just be calm and confident to the end of the race and that's what happened."

Arendz got to the finish line well ahead of Daviet but it wasn't nearly enough.

Daviet's physical limitations prevent him from bending his left leg at the knee, resulting in a level of impairment listed as LW2. The product of his 93 per cent multiplier and his actual elapsed time made his adjusted time 42:22.2. Arendz, who lost his left arm just above the elbow in a farming accident, is listed as LW6 for a multiplier of 96 per cent and an adjusted time of 42:50.4.

"It's exactly how I wanted it, maybe not the result in the end, but I just focused on what I could do, which was control the pace on the skiing and shoot clean on the range," said Arendz, a native of Hartsville, P.E.I. "Today I was able to hold it and it stayed there. I didn't fade and had good pacing, so the body's there. I think I had a great race, everything was as good as I would have hoped for, it's just that Daviet had me at the end with a little more speed."

Arendz has learned over the years how to control his breathing and slow his heart rate as he comes into the range after minutes of hard pounding on the trails, a remarkable skill that takes years to develop.

"Thousands and thousands of rounds definitely help and for me it's getting to that little moment, that mindset, if I'm in it, and today I was definitely in it. It's more like meditation," he said. "It's somewhere between conscious and sub-conscious and it's a wonderful place to be but it's tough to get there. For me, that's the key to shooting, to be in that zone."

Daviet's run of success this week means not only a gold-medal haul but also a collection of five miniature stuffed Frasers, the city's moose mascot, which he'll be taking back home to his family in the village of Le Grand-Bornand (pop. 2,100) in the southeastern French Alps near Annecy.

In France, he's not quite as big of a star as World Cup biathlon champion Martin Fourcade but Daviet is expecting a celebration when he gets home from Prince George.

"For sure, in my village we'll make a huge party with all of my friends and all the village and it will be nice to come home," said Daviet.

Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine was the bronze medalist (44:26.1, 0+0+1+0).

In the women's standing race, a 12.5 km event, Ukrainians swept the podium. Liudmyla Liashenko has done nothing but win the biathlon events and she was virtually flawless in Thursday's individual event (41:09.2, 0+0+0+0), winning by 22.67 seconds over teammate Oleksandra Kononova (42:42.5, 0+1+1+0). Yuliia Batenkov-Bauman (45:46.2, 1+0+2+0) was the bronze medalist.

"I was calm in the shooting range today, my main task was to shoot clean and I did it good today so the result shows itself," said Liashenko. "Of course it was cold but it was cold for everybody.

"It's really awesome (to have three Ukrainians on the podium), everybody is really happy to represent our country. It's difficult to say why we do so well, maybe because we train harder than others or maybe we take the sport more serious, nobody knows what is the secret."

Brittany Hudak of Kelowna (46:42.6, 0+0+0+1) posted her second fourth-place biathlon finish of the championships and was feeling the effects of pushing her limits for 47 minutes, knowing throughout the race she was flirting with her first medal finish of the week.

"That one hurt," Hudak said. "It got a bit colder overnight and the snow wasn't as fast as (Wednesday) and going a bit longer today after three races the legs were feeling a bit tired by the third lap.

"This is more of a shooter's race, for sure, and I was hoping for clean shooting and on the last bout I didn't feel a lot of wind and thought I was lined up and just pulled a little too soon. I knew 19 out of 20 is still pretty good but unfortunately that miss is probably going to cost a podium spot but that's sport and what can you do."

Ukraine has dominated the championships and has an insurmountable lead in the medal standings with eight gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze for a total of 36 medals.

"As much as it's tough to see them on the podium all the time, it's still nice to know we have a competitive field and it helps make the sport stronger," said Hudak. "You feel better when you podium with them but it didn't happen today."

The U.S. is second with 13 (five gold, six silver, two bronze) and France ranks third with seven total (five gold and two bronze). Germany is fourth with 13 medals (four gold, three silver six bronze). Arendz's second silver of the championships gave seventh-place Canada a total of six medals for the championships (one gold, three silver, two bronze).