Kurtis Wenzel became the first Canadian to win a biathlon junior world championship when he captured the 15-km individual competition Tuesday at Kontiolahti, Finland.

The Calgarian missed just one shot in his four rounds, overcoming wind gusts to finish with a time of 44 minutes 9.2 seconds.

"This is very special for me," Wenzel said. "I was pretty anxious before the race but I did a good job of staying relaxed and calm."

Norway's Marius Hol was second at 44:52.0 and Russia's Alexandr Loginov was third at 45:07.2.