Canada's Wilkie claims 2nd gold of Beijing Games in cross-country sprint event

Canada's Natalie Wilkie claimed her second gold medal of the Beijing Paralympics on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Salmon Arm, B.C., native won the women's standing Para cross-country skiing sprint event with a time of four minutes 5.1 seconds for her fifth career Paralympic medal.

Wilkie overtook Vilde Nilsen of Norway in the final few metres, finishing three seconds ahead of the silver medallist. Sydney Peterson, of the United States, crossed the line third for bronze with a time of 4:12.1 seconds.

"I just thought to myself," Wilkie said, "'This is going to take you like five seconds to get to the finish chute, just hammer it, you're not going to regret it.'

"I'm not regretting this at all."

WATCH l Wilkie skis to her 2nd gold medal of the Beijing Paralympics:

The win is an improvement from her bronze medal performance in the event at PyeongChang 2018. She also won gold in the 7.5km event and silver in the 4x2.5km relay as the youngest Canadian Paralympian four years ago.

Following the victory, Wilkie checked on Nilsen, who was laying in the snow overcome with emotions after coming so close to winning the gold medal.

"[Nilsen] had a massive lead on me heading into the finish area, but I ended up catching her up on the downhill, and I was faster in the finish chute which ended up earning me a gold medal," Wilkie said.

'I thought I had it in my pocket'

Nilsen repeated her silver medal performance from four years ago, when Anna Milenina of the Russian Paralympic Committee bested her for gold.

"I was really hoping for a gold medal in the middle of the race," Nilsen said. "I thought I had it in my pocket, but the same as in PyeongChang 2018, someone was coming up to me next to the finish line and it's a little bit sad."

Despite the disappointment, the 21-year-old Norwegian gave the Canadian her credit.

"It was very tough, really. My legs were so stiff that I couldn't really manage to come at the same speed as she did. [Wilkie] picked the track that I'd been keen on, on the far right side, but I just had to fight the last metres," she said.

It wasn't enough. I was exhausted, so she deserves the win. I'll have to be happy with the silver."

Wilkie, who lost four fingers on her left hand in a school workshop accident in 2016, is now two for two in gold medals in Beijing. On Monday, she won the women's standing 15km cross-country skiing race.

Despite feeling fairly confident in her chances of winning a medal on Wednesday, the victory still came as a surprise to her.

"It's special because I didn't think I would win the gold today at all," she said.

"I know I'm a good sprinter, but I didn't think I was good enough to have the fastest time of the day, so it was a complete shock when I out-skied Vilde [Nilsen] in the finish chute."

Wilkie will next compete in the women's standing middle distance cross-country ski race on Friday at 10:20 p.m. ET.

WATCH l While You Were Sleeping — Canada adds trio of medals on Day 5: