Canadians Jepsen, Hudak, Arendz earn medals to return to podium at Beijing Paralympics
Tyler Turner, of Campbell River, B.C., earns bronze in Para snowboarding event
Canada's Mollie Jepsen, Mark Arendz, Brittany Hudak and Tyler Turner earned more medals at the Beijing Paralympics on Friday.
Jepsen, a West Vancouver, B.C., native, posted a combined time of two minutes 0.95 seconds to take silver in the women's standing giant slalom for her second podium appearance.
The 22-year-old was 5.83 seconds slower than Zhang Mengqiu of China, who struck gold. Andrea Rothfuss of Germany claimed bronze with a time of 2:01.91.
"I'm so stoked. I think I've been very up and down with my GS skiing over the years," Jepsen said.
"It's been something I've really, really struggled with, and over the last year I've put a lot of time and effort into improving my GS skiing and kind of figuring it out to begin with, so I'm just really happy to show that today."
WATCH | Jepsen grabs giant slalom silver for 2nd medal of Games:
Medal hopeful Ebba Aarsjoe of Sweden, who had posted the second-best time in the first run, crashed out in her second go.
Michaela Gosselin of Collingwood, Ont., finished sixth with a combined time of 2:06.17 Fellow Canadian Alana Ramsey crashed out in her second run.
Last Friday, Jepsen captured Canada's first gold medal of the Games by winning the women's standing downhill race.
"Today was just about leaving it all out on the hill so I could leave my last event of the Games just happy that I did everything I could," Jepsen said.
Toronto native Katie Combaluzier, 28, finished eighth in the women's sitting giant slalom event with a combined time of two minutes 28.27 seconds.
Arendz's silver makes full set
In biathlon, Canadian Mark Arendz also skied to a silver medal.
The 32-year-old from Hartsville, P.E.I., secured second place in the men's standing 12.5-kilometre event with a time of 40:13, putting him well behind gold medallist Benjamin Daviet of France.
"I'm really happy. I think this was one of my strongest races here so far," Arendz said. "I was really happy with the skiing. I actually felt like I was skiing myself back after that one miss and going down the field a bit, but I skied myself back.
"I felt very comfortable on the snow, and strong. I'm a little surprised still at the gap, but that win by Daviet has really spurred on a different kind of Daviet, and he's skiing extremely well now compared to earlier in the competition."
WATCH | Arendz adds to medal haul with silver in Beijing:
Ukraine's Grygorii Vovchynskyi rounded out the podium with bronze.
It's Arendz's third podium appearance at the Beijing Paralympics, after he won gold in the standing 10-kilometre event and bronze in the 6km.
He's now up to 11 career Paralympics, including six at the Pyeongchang Paralympics in 2018.
Hudak bursts to bronze
Meanwhile, Hudak added a second medal of her own by claiming bronze in the women's 12.5km standing biathlon.
The 28-year-old from Prince Albert, Sask., crossed the finish line 1:41.4 behind gold medallist Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine. China's Zhao Zhiqing took silver.
"I'm really happy with today. I think in the individual, the goal is always to shoot clean," said Hudak, who repeated her PyeongChang 2018 finish in the event.
"It's definitely a shooters' race with one minute added on to your time for every miss, so I would have liked to shoot clean but I was very happy with my skiing today. I had such fast skis out there, so kudos to my wax techs. I'm just happy with a really great race."
WATCH l Brittany Hudak claims her 2nd bronze medal at Beijing Paralympics:
Hudak previously earned bronze in the 15km cross-country event, where fellow Canadian Natalie Wilkie took gold.
Hudak's latest podium appearance is the third of her career, all of which have been bronze.
Fellow Canadian Emily Young was in medal contention throughout the race, but could quite keep pace en route to her sixth-place finish.
Turner grabs 2nd Para snowboarding medal
Tyler Turner, of Campbell River, B.C., claimed yet another medal with bronze in the men's banked slalom SB-LL1 event.
After putting down the sixth-best time (1:14.00) in the first run, the 33-year-old climbed to third with a time of 1:12.84 and held onto his place.
WATCH | Turner rides to bronze in banked slalom event:
Turner had won Canada's first-ever Para snowboarding gold medal with a victory in the men's snowboard cross SB-LL1 event just days ago.
"There was a lot of pressure I put on myself for snowboard cross. This was just going out, having fun snowboarding," Turner said.
"I kept saying, I'll just do my best and wherever that lands me — I never in a million years thought it'd land me here in third. I'm a little speechless."
The Canadian was narrowly edged out of silver by Dutch snowboarder Chris Vos (1:12.06), while China's Wu Zhongwei claimed gold with his best time of 1:10.85.
"I was showing up with no expectations here [today] and so it just feels different. I'm just so happy right now," he said.
"This is [a] bonus. This is massive."
Alex Massie, of Barrie, Ont., placed sixth in the men's SB-LL2 event.
On the women's side, Lisa DeJong, of Biggar, Sask., placed eighth in the women's banked slalom SB-LL2 event. Fellow Canadian Sandrine Hamel finished 10th.
Cameron misses podium
Canada's Collin Cameron just missed out on his third bronze of the Beijing Paralympics on Friday in China.
The Bracebridge, Ont., native placed fourth in the men's 12.5km sitting biathlon, just over one minute outside of the podium in an event in which he took bronze four years ago in Pyeongchang.
China's Liu Mengtao ran away with gold at 38 minutes 29.4 seconds, while Ukraine's Taras Rad scored silver in 39:13.9 and China's Liu Zixu took bronze ahead of Cameron at 39:27.5.
Cameron crossed the finish line in 40:35.6. Fellow Canadian Derek Zaplotinsky of Smoky Lake, Alta., placed 10th at 43:45.2.
Cameron, 33, previously reached the Beijing podium in the cross-country sprint and 15km races. He now owns five career Paralympic medals, three of which were won in 2018 and all of which are bronze.
Earlier, Canada's Christina Picton placed seventh in the women's sitting 12.5km event.
