Japan's Yoshihiro Nitta won gold in the standing category of the cross-country 10-kilometer classical skiing on Saturday at the Winter Paralympics.

Nitta crossed the finish line at Alpensia Biathlon Centre in a disability-factored time of 24 minutes, 6.8 seconds. Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine finished 8.7 seconds behind Nitta for silver, while Canada's Mark Arendz took bronze.

"All I can say is that I'm glad. I'm really happy," Nitta said. "I've been working hard for the past four years, and very glad that everything paid off."

The 37-year-old, won the same event at the 2010 Vancouver Games but finished without a medal when he competed at the Sochi Games four years ago. In Pyeongchang, he took silver in the standing 1.5-km sprint classical on Wednesday.

"The past four years have been really difficult for me, and I thought a lot about running away," Nitta said. "But my wife, my children and my coach went through that difficult time with me. I wanted to make them happy."

Nitta fell at the beginning of the race, with Vovchynskyi holding onto the lead most of the way. However, Nitta was able to recover and came from behind as his family cheered from the stands.

"I heard that I was closing in to Grygorii toward the end of the race. I didn't want to give up and told myself that I've been training for this moment. I made up my mind, and I think that's why I was able to come from behind."

Nitta, who lost his left forearm at age 3 after it got caught in a combine harvester, competed in Pyeongchang under the LW8 classification for athletes with moderate impairment in one arm.

The veteran skier, who made his debut at the 1998 Nagano Games, said that this gold medal has a significant meaning for him.

"I've realized that doing my best will produce great results. The gold just comes with giving the best performance," Nitta said. "Thirty-seven is still a young age if you are energetic and have things you want to accomplish."

Among other Japanese, Taiki Kawayoke and Keiichi Sato were 10th and 11th, respectively. Keigo Iwamoto was far behind at 18th.