Cable 2015: Cross-country to take over on day two

Following up a silver medal in the long distance event at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, Finland’s Ilkka Tuomisto will make a charge while Canadian Mark Arendz could also find himself in the hunt for the medals.

Following a day of biathlon races, the cross-country programme opens at the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin, USA, on Sunday (25 January) with the long distance events taking centre stage.

In the largest gathering of Nordic skiers since the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, several cross-country athletes already making good on their desire to make gains for the next Paralympic cycle.

The course distances will vary for the athletes; with the men’s sitting athletes traveling 15km compared to 20km for the standing and visually impaired competitors. Comparatively, the women sit skiers will cover 12km and the standing and visually impaired athletes will travel 15km in their pursuit of World Championship gold in Cable.

In the men’s sitting American Andrew Soule will take his second chance at a medal to follow on from biathlon silver on Saturday (24 january),while Canada’s Chris Klebl will also challenge for a medal.

Trying to repeat their medal sweep in the event from the 2014 Paralympic Games, Russia will send a strong field of competitors, including Aleksandr Davidovich, who sits third in the standings for the 2014-15 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup.

Looking to make history on home soil, Oksana Masters and Tatyana McFadden will take aim at the top of the women’s podium, facing a sizeable challenge from a pool of athletes including German flag bearer Anja Wicker and Norway’s Mariann Marthinsen.

Ukraine’s Ihor Reptyukh won the 10km race at the World Cup in Vuokatti, Finland in December and will represent his country’s hopes in the men’s standing event.

Following up a silver medal in the long distance event at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, Finland’s Ilkka Tuomisto will make a charge while Canadian Mark Arendz could also find himself in the hunt for the medals.

Sweden will put their hopes in the women’s event on the shoulders of Paralympic Champion Helene Ripa. Fellow Scandinavian athletes, Norwegian Anne Karen Olsen and Finland’s Maija Jarvela will also challenge for a medal.

They will contend with Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko, who sit one-two respectively in the World Cup cross-country rankings for standing athletes.

The visually impaired skiers will close out the second day of competition. France’s Thomas Clarion and guide Julien Bourla presently sit third in the World Cup standings behind Russia’s Stanislav Chokhlaev — with guide Evgenii Fatkhullin — and fellow countrymen Vladimir Udaltcov and guide Ruslan Bogachev.

With Russia and Ukraine taking up the eight of the top nine spots on the World Cup standings for visually impaired women, they will factor heavily into the podium in Cable with six of the eight entrants in the race, including the team of Elena Remizova and guide Maksim Pirogov, the Paralympic Champions in the event from Sochi.

Standing in their way of a sweep of the podium will be Germany’s Vivian Hosch with guide Florian Schillinger, medallists from Saturday, and compatriot Clara Klug and guide Martin Hartl.

Live results will be available at

http://www.paralympic.org/cable-2015/schedule-results.

A livestream and lives results will be available at www.cable2015.com or via US Paralympics for viewers in the USA.

All competitions begin at 10am (CST) every day, with rest days on 26 and 29

January.

Low resolution pictures will be available at the IPC's Flickr account and high resolution versions are

available on request via ipc.media@paralympic.org.