USA's Soule wins historic fifth medal at Cable 2015

“Everything has come together with all of our plans,”

The USA’s Andrew Soule continued his race into the record books at the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin, USA, on Saturday (31 January), winning silver in the men’s middle distance cross-country sitting.

The medal was Soule’s third silver and fifth medal overall of the competition, a new record for a US skier at an IPC Nordic Skiing Worlds.

Soule was understandably happy with the performance, crediting the past year of training to achieving his results on home soil.

“Everything has come together with all of our plans,” Soule said.

Russia’s Aleksandr Davidovich (27:45.3) finished ahead of Soule, whilst his compatriot Alexey Bychenok (28:18.9) took bronze to increase his medal haul to five at the end of the individual events.

Germany’s Andrea Eskau (16:02.3) raced to some history of her own in the women’s sitting, taking gold to sweep the three cross country races, though she credited her competitors for pushing her.

“It was close, all races, but in the end I have the luck to win,” Eskau said.

Oksana Masters (16:07.5) claimed silver as her second medal of the week and Norwegian Mariann Marthinsen (16:12.3) took bronze.

Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova (15:53.0) continued her run of excellent form to win all six women’s standing events across biathlon and cross-country. Fellow countrywoman Liudmyla Liashenko (16:29.9) took silver.

Swedish skier Helene Ripa (17:02.8) took bronze to round out her individual competition with two medals.

“This race was much more tougher for me,” Ripa said. “I had in my mind [Kononova] could be tired after all those races, but I still know that she’s very hard to beat.

Russian Vladislav Lekomtcev (25:41.4) reclaimed the top spot on the podium in the men’s standing.

Teammate Ruslan Minnegulov (25:56.2) won silver. Ukraine’s Ihor Reptyukh (26:13.2) claimed bronze to round out the podium.

Stanislav Chokhlaev (26:15.2), guided by Evgenii Fatkhullin, led the third straight sweep Russian of the men’s visually impaired podium.

Nikolay Polukhin (26:47.4) and guide Andrey Tokarev took silver while the team of Vladimir Udaltcov (27:23.4), guided by Ruslan Bogachev, won bronze.

Speaking through a translator, Polukhin said he was happy for Chokhlaev, adding he felt that he “overachieved” in the individual races.

“I was planning to compete in biathlon events this week and was planning to do well in the middle distance,” Polukhin continued.

Russia retained the top spot in the women’s visually impaired as Elena Remizova (16:00.4), guided by Maksim Priogov, took gold ahead of compatriot Iuliia Budaleeva (16:25.3) and guide Tatiana Maltseva.

Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova (17:40.3) and guide Lada Nesterenko held on for the bronze medal.

The competition concludes on Sunday (1 February) with the cross-country relays, which start at 10am (CST).

Live results will be available at www.cable2015.org as well as a livestream.

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.