March 15: RUSSIA notched up eight medals on day two of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games as they reached the podium in all of the six biathlon events where medals were handed out.

Russian Irek Zaripov took gold in the men's 2.4km pursuit sitting in a time of 9:51 minutes finishing more than 47 seconds ahead of the Ukraine's Iurii Kostiuk, who won silver.

Andy Soule won the USA's only medal of the day as he crossed the line third to take bronze.


Russia continued their biathlon dominance in the men's 3km pursuit standing as Kirill Mikhaylov won gold in a time of 10:32.02 minutes.

Nils-Erik Ulset of Norway claimed the silver and the Ukraine's Grygorii Vovchynskyi won bronze.

And not to be out-done the Russian women showed their prowess with Anna Burmistrova winning the 3km pursuit standing ahead of Finland's Maija Loytynoja and teammate Alena Gorbunova, who took silver and bronze respectively.

The Ukraine broke their neighbour's dominance as Olena Iurkovska emerged victorious in the women's 2.4km pursuit stopping the clock on 9:55.05 minutes.

Maria Iovleva won silver for Russia and Lyudmyla Pavlenko secured the bronze for the Ukraine.

In the visually impaired events, Germany's Verena Bentele captured gold in the women's 3km while the Ukraine's Vitaliy Lukyanenko made it a successful day for his nation taking the men's 3km title.

Meanwhile, the wheelchair curling got underway but it was a disappointing day for Great Britain as they lost both of their opening games, going down 9-2 to Canada and 7-5 to Norway in a much tighter match.

But with the round robin format skip Michael McCreadie and his rink of Tom Killin, Angela Malone, Aileen Neilson and Jim Sellar still have a chance to redeem themselves before the medals are decided next week.

Home favourites Canada remain undefeated after getting the better of North American rivals the USA 10-5 after the Americans had won their opening game 9-6 against Korea.

Elsewhere, the ice sledge hockey competition began with the USA notching up their second win of the day against Korea as they came away 5-0 winners.

Canada looked impressive as they overcame Italy 4-0, Norway came through 2-1 against Sweden and Japan defeated the Czech Republic by the same margin.  

Day three will see the alpine skiing slalom sitting and visually impaired events take place with British athletes Sean Rose, Russell Docker, Talan Skeels-Piggins, Tim Farr, Jane Sowerby, Anna Turney and Kelly Gallagher all in action.

There will also be medals to be won in the men's cross country 15km sitting and the women's 10km sitting at Whistler Paralympic Park while the wheelchair curling and the ice sledge hockey group games continue.

Source: http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk