Victories for Canada (2), Russia (2), USA and Ukraine during the opening day of the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup Finals.
The opening day of the World Cup Finals in Surnadal, Norway, started with cross-country long distance races Tuesday. The first race ended with victory for Oksana Masters (USA), who won the women's 12 km sit-ski in 36.44,9.
Norwegian Mariann Marthinsen finished in second place in 37.37,7, while Natalia Kocherova from Russia came in third at 39.14,6. Click here to read a Norwegian story about the race, and here for the English version.
Canadian Chris Klebl won the men's 15 km sit-ski in 40.24,0, only 1,3 seconds ahead of Aleksandr Davidovich of Russia. World Cup leader Alexey Bychenok finished in third place in 41.21,8.
More gold for Kononova
In the women's 15 km standing, Cable 2015 World Championships hero and four time Paralympic gold medal winner Oleksandra Kononova won the gold medal in 42.18,9. Brittany Hudak from Canada came in second at 44.35,8 and third-placed Liudmyla Liashenko (Ukraine) crossed the finished line at 44.49,8.
Ekaterina Rumyantseva, who lead the overall World Cup rankings ahead of the World Cup Finals in Surnadal, placed fourth.
World Cup leader Iuliia Budaleeva from Russia won the women's visually impaired 15 km in 43.19,9, ahead of Oksana Shyshkova, whose silver was one of five Ukrainian medals Tuesday. Shyshkova finished in 43.57,1, while bronze medal winner Elena Remizova from Russia clocked in at 44.27,5.
Victory for Minnegulov
The Men's standing 20 km also ended with gold to Russia, after Rushan Minnegulov won the race in 49.28,0. Minnegulov is in second place, behind compatriot Vladislav Lecomtcev, in the overall World Cup rankings.
Ukrainan Ihor Reptyuk finished second in 50.41,5, while Håkon Olsrud won Norway's second medal of the day when he fought hard to beat Ilkka Tuomisto by 15 seconds in the race for third place.
McKeever unbeatable
Brian McKeever has won no less than 10 Paralympic cross-country gold medals - two at the games in Salt Lake City in 2002, two in Torino 2006, three in Vancouver 2010 and three in Sotsji 2014. The 35-year-old from Canada proved impossible to beat once again at the World Cup Finals in Surnadal Tuesday.
He won the men's visually impaired 20 km in 48.38,5, while second-placed Stanislav Chokhlaev came in at 53.21,3. Anatolii Kovalevskyi from Ukraine took the bronze medal as he finished the 20 kilometres in 55.00,5. Norwegian World Cup leader Eirik Bye placed fourth.
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