Meenagh wins historic Para Nordic silver medal

Scott Meenagh has won Britain’s first ever Para Nordic World Championship medal with silver in the 12.5km seated biathlon event in Sweden.

Meenagh moved up into medal contention after the third of four shooting phases.

The 33-year-old put in another display of flawless shooting in the final round to create history.

“I’m incredibly proud of this result after years of hard work and some very close results in previous events that we’ve just come off on the wrong side of,” said Meenagh.

“We focused on steady and clean shooting as the foundation of my performance. The skiing looks after itself from that.”

Meenagh, who lost both of his legs when he was 21 and serving with the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED), narrowly missed out on a medal in Saturday’s 7.5km event where he finished fourth.

He competed in rowing at the 2014 Invictus Games before switching sports and is the only British competitor at the event after injuries and retirements ruled out the remainder of the squad who travelled to last year’s Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

The sport also suffered a blow when its UK Sport investment was removed in the latest funding settlement last year.

“It has been a truly special journey we’ve been on up to this point,” added Meenagh.

“We’ve had some challenges this year with the loss of our World Class Programme funding after our best-ever Paralympic result.

“But I’m extremely thankful to those who wouldn’t let the dream die. In particular, the Armed Forces Para Snow Sports team, who were pivotal to getting the sport off the ground in the UK and have supported me tirelessly since 2016.”