Canada's Collin Cameron opens para Nordic world championships with silver

Canada's Collin Cameron opened the 2019 world para Nordic skiing championships with a silver medal on Saturday in Prince George, B.C.

The 30-year-old from Sudbury, Ont., finished second in the men's 12.5-kilometre biathlon sit-skiing event for his first-ever world championship hardware, posting a career-best time of 44 minutes 45.5 seconds.

"This feels incredible. It is totally unexpected," said Cameron. "I put a plan together and just tried to focus on the range this morning, ski my race as well as I can and see what happens."

Cameron made up considerable time in his five laps up and down the rolling terrain at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club after missing one shot in three of his four trips to the shooting range.

Athletes are forced to ski a 100-metre penalty loop for each missed shot.

"I tried to be consistent in shooting, but I definitely made up a lot of time on the skis," added the Paralympian.

Ukraine's Taras Rad shot clean to win the gold medal with a time of 43:15. South Korea's Euihyun Shin missed one shot in his final bout at the range, but hung on for the bronze medal with a time of 45:02.7.

Arendz earns bronze

Meanwhile, Mark Arendz, of Springton, P.E.I., added to his career world championship medal haul with the bronze in the men's standing middle distance biathlon race.

One miss in his third stop at the range cost the 28-year-old a shot at the top of the podium.

"It felt pretty good overall. The legs were feeling really heavy toward the end and I lost a little focus on that third bout with that miss," said Arendz, whose six-medal triumph in Pyeongchang was the most medals ever won by a Winter Paralympian in one Games. "I just tried to finish the race off as best as I could."

Benjamin Daviet of France shot clean to win gold while Norway's Nils-Erik Ulset won the silver medal.

The world para Nordic skiing championships continue on Sunday with the cross-country skiing middle distance races.