Budaleeva and Kononova continue winning streak at IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup

Russia's Iuliia Budaleeva and Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova both continued their winning streak at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup in Surnadal, Norway, in the biathlon sprint races on Wednesday (18 March).

Kononova (16:15.3), who had won six out of six possible gold medals at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, USA, in January, once again stood on top of the podium in the women's standing. Having missed one shot in the first shooting, Kononova put on a strong performance on the track to beat compatriot Liudmyla Liashenko (16:18.7), who had hit all targets, by just 3.4 sec. Canada's Brittany Hudak added another podium finish to her second place from yesterday's race finishing third (18:30.7).

After their victory in the cross-country skiing long distance race, Budaleeva and her guide Tatiana Maltseva (17:22.2) topped the podium with a perfect shooting result. Ukraine's Oksana Shyshkova with guide Lada Nesterenko (17:33.8) and Olga Prylutska and guide Borys Babar (17:35.1) had to settle for second and third place respectively.

Budaleeva's teammates from Russia added three more gold medals to their tally.

Having finished in second place in the men's long distance cross-country skiing race, Stanislav Chokhlaev and guide Evgenii Fatkhullin (19:04.1) won the closest race of the day by just 0.5 sec ahead of Ukraine's Anatolii Kovalevskyi with guide Oleksandr Mukshyn (19:04.6). While Kovalevskyi presented a clean sheet, Choklaev missed one shot and had to push hard to reach the top of the podium. Nikolay Polukhin and guide Andrey Tokarev (19:16.0) finished in third place.

World champion Vladislav Lekomtcev (17:20.1) dominated the men's standing with a perfect shooting performance ahead of Norway's Nils-Erik Ulset (18:05.0) and Canada's Mark Arendz (18:06.1).

Aleksandr Davidovich (21:11.8) completed Russia's collection of gold medals of the day, topping the podium in the men's sitting without missing a single shot. Germany's Martin Fleig finished in second (21:45.8), 2.2 sec ahead of world champion Maksym Yarvoyi of Ukraine (21:48.0).

Fleig's teammate Anja Wicker (20:18.1) won the women's sitting race with a convincing performance on the track as well as at the shooting range. Russia's Natalia Kocherova (21:04.6) finished second with Belarus' Lidziya Hrafeyeva (21:21.5) coming in third.

Competition continues through to 22 March with middle distance classic cross-country, as well as short, pursuit and long distance biathlon.

Live results will be available at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup page and official results at the IPC Nordic Skiing website.