The only event on today was the Cross Country Sprints, where athletes have to get through Qualification and a Semi-Final to have any hope of progressing to the final. Brian Mckeever was the only Canadian medallist, picking up a Gold in the Men’s Visually Impaired after winning all the heats leading up to it. This one medal may not seem to be much but in fact it puts Canada into third place overall, the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s aim. With Ukraine only picking up two medals today the two countries are tied in total medal but Canada gets the benefit of the doubt because they have 10 Gold compared to 5 for the Ukraine. Those Gold’s team that they have beaten their record of 6 that they set in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, USA and the 1988 Games in Insnsbruck, Austria.
In the Men’s Visually Impaired Silver went to Nikolay Polukhin of Russia and Bronze to Zebastian Modin of Sweden. The only other Canadian in this event was Alexei Novikov, who did not qualify. In the Women’s Visually Impaired Verena Bentele of Germany added another medal to her collection with a Gold while Silver and Bronze went to Mikhalina Lysova and Liubov Vasilyeva of Russia. Robi Weldon and Courtney Knight finished 5th and 8th in the Qualifying but both went out in the Semi-Finals. Margarita Garbounova finished one spot out of qualification, in 9th and did not go to the semis.
In the Men’s Sitting Sergey Shilov, Irek Zaripov and Vladimir Kiselev took the medals as Russia owned the podium in this event. Canadians included Lou Gibson (29th) and Sebastien Fortier (32nd), both did not qualify. In the Women’s Sitting Francesca Porcellato of Italy took Gold while Olena Iurkovska of the Ukraine and Liudmila Vauchok of Belarus finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Colette Bourgonje was the only Canadian in the event but finished 10th and did not qualify for the semis.
In the Men’s Standing Yoshihiro Nitta of Japan took top spot while Kiril lMikhaylov of Russia and Ilkka Tuomisto of Finland took Silver and Bronze. Two Canadians, Mark Arendz and Tyler Mosher, competed but finished 9th and 21st so they did not qualify. In the last event, the Women’s Standing Sprint, Oleksandra Kononova of the Ukraine won the Gold while Shoko Ota of Japan took the Silver and Anna Burmistrova of Russia captured the Bronze.
It was a fitting end to a great week of competition!
