Canada's Natalie Wilkie captures 2nd biathlon gold, 4th medal of Milano-Cortina Paralympics
CBC
Canada's Natalie Wilkie captured her second biathlon gold of the Milano-Cortina Paralympics on Friday, winning the women's standing sprint pursuit for her fourth medal in as many events.
The Salmon Arm, B.C., native dominated the race with a time of 12 minutes 18 seconds after shooting clean in both rounds.
Wilkie finished 17.7 seconds ahead of Ukrainian silver medallist Iryna Bui. Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova took bronze in 12:49.
Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Sask., finished ninth in 13:51.3.
The 25-year-old Wilkie, one of Canada's flag-bearers at the opening ceremony, is now an 11-time Paralympic medallist. She took silver in the sprint biathlon last Saturday before winning the individual biathlon on Sunday and adding bronze in Tuesday's cross-country sprint classic.
Wilkie's latest medal pushes Canada within one of 200 total medals won at the Winter Paralympics.
Canada has 11 medals through seven days of competition in Italy — two gold, three silver, six bronze. The full medal table is available here.
Canada's nordic skiing team has now accounted for seven medals, with four in biathlon and three in cross-country.
Wilkie, a three-time Paralympian, has matched her career-high medal total from the 2022 Beijing Games and still has at least one event left.
Wilkie is scheduled to compete in the 20-kilometre interval start free cross-country race on Sunday, but she is also eligible for the 4x2.5km cross-country relays on Saturday — making it possible for her to tie late alpine legend Lana Spreeman as Canada's most decorated female Winter Paralympian with 13 medals.
The Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics officially opened Friday amid the tensions of war in the Middle East, and with some countries boycotting the opening ceremony because of the return of the Russian flag to the global sports stage.
Iran will not participate in the Milan Cortina Paralympics because its only athlete set to compete can't safely travel to Italy amid the intensifying Middle East conflict, the International Paralympic Committee said Friday.
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