Germany and Canada claim cross-country gold at Cable 2015

Germany's Andrea Eskau and Canadian Brian McKeever claimed the first golds for their countries at the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin, USA on Sunday (25 January), in the long distance cross-country races.

In the women's sitting, Eskau powered her way to her second medal of the competition, taking gold with an emphatic finish in 40:14.9.

Marta Zaynullina (40.21.7) added a silver to Russia's medal haul whilst Norway's Mariann Marthinsen (41:12.3) was third.

"The temperature was not really a problem because it is not that cold yet," Eskau said. "The course was a little bit slower than yesterday and my strategy was not to push too hard on the first run."

Aleksandr Davidovich claimed Russia's latest gold medal in the men's event, finishing in a time of 44:06.2. Ukraine's Maksym Yarovyi (44:11.3), Saturday's (24 January) short distance biathlon gold winner, took silver.

The USA's Andrew Soule (44:26.0) picked up his second medal in as many days to complete the top three.

"This has been a great event so far," Soule said. "The organisers and volunteers have put on a wonderful event, the course has been groomed out fantastically. It has just been a lot of fun."

Making good on his only race of the competition, Canada's Brian McKeever (43:44.5), guided by Eric Carleton, skied to gold in the men's visually impaired.

"It is nice to be on fast snow," McKeever said following his victory, which adds to his gold medal from the same event at Sochi 2014.

"[The] staff were absolutely instrumental, skis were amazing and that makes our job far easier when all that stuff comes together."

France's Thomas Clarion (45:29.8) and guide Julien Bourla carried themselves to silver while the Russian duo of Stanislav Chokhlaev (45.42.2) and guide Evgenii Fatkhullin picked up the bronze.

The women's equivalent saw Iuliia Budaleeva (46:49.3) and Tatiana Maltseva capture gold while teammates Elena Remizova (47:21.1) and guide Maksim Pirogov took silver. Ukraine's Olga Prylutska and guide Borys Babar sealed bronze (49:00.9).

Russia claimed another gold medal as Rushan Minnegulov (43:43.6) won the men's standing event.

Frenchman Benjamin Daviet won his second silver of Cable 2015, finishing in a time of 44:15.9,

whilst Ukraine's Ihor Reptyukh (44:53.7) rounded off the podium in third.

Reptyukh's compatriots Oleksandra Kononova (43.42.8) and Liiudmyia Liashenko (46:08.9) repeated their performance in biathlon from Saturday to win gold and silver respectively.

"I was training very long to get this kind of results" Liashenko said.

"We worked very hard and the track here is really hard so it is not an easy race, which is why I am very satisfied with the result."

Russia's Ekaterina Rumyantseva (47:24.5) took bronze.

Monday (26 January) will be a rest day with the competition continuing on Tuesday (27 January) with the biathlon middle distance races.

Live results will be available at www.paralympic.org/cable-2015/schedule-results.

A live stream will be shown at www.cable2015.com

All competitions begin at 10am (CST) every day, with another rest day on 29 January.

Low resolution pictures will be available at www.flickr.com/photos/paralympic/ and high resolution versions are available on request via ipc.media@paralympic.org.

For further information, please contact Lucy Dominy, IPC Public Relations and Campaigns Manager on e-mail: lucy.dominy@paralympic.org or call +49-228-2097-159 (Germany) or +7 9384541976 (Sochi 2014). Alternatively, please visit www.paralympic.org/nordic-skiing or www.ParalympicSport.TV.

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