March 5, 2009 (Whistler, BC) – Canada’s Mark Arendz birthday present came one day late but he’ll take it – a fourth-place finish and his best-ever result at the IPC Biathlon World Cup at Whistler Paralympic Park on Wednesday. Arendz, who turned 19 on Tuesday, finished fourth in the men’s standing division of the biathlon pursuit competition.

The Springton, P.E.I. native missed only one shot in his two trips to the range en route to finishing 32.6 seconds behind the leader. “This present came a day late for me, but it still counts and I’ll take it,” joked the IPC World Cup sophomore “I am really pleased with the way I skied and shot today. This is a very strong result for me and it just feels great.”

The biathlon pursuit competition consists of athletes in each category competing in a morning qualifier where they sprint around theone-kilometre loop three times and enter the shooting range between after the first two laps, firing five sets of shots both in the prone position. The afternoon pursuit, which includes the top-10 qualifiers in each division, consists of a hunting start where athletes starting time-behind the leader of the morning sprint qualification round.

It was the first time the Canadian Para-Nordic Team competed on the 2010 Parlaympic venue in the Callaghan Valley. “This course is fantastic and I love it,” said Arendz. “It flows really nice and seems to work well with my style of skiing.” Arendz has the podium within his range, but it was Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset who was the man to beat on Wednesday. Grygorii Vovchynskiyi, of the Ukraine, was second, while Konstantin Yamchuk, of Russia, was third.

Other Canadians competing in the opening day of the 2009 Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Cup included: Jody Barber, of Smithers, B.C., who finished seventh in the women’s standing division; Shauna Maria Whyte, of Hinton, Alta., was the final finisher in the women’s sit-ski category.

The IPC World Cup continues on Thursday with the cross-country skiing middle distance races.