Russia take home relay golds at IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships

Russia took home the two gold medals in the relay competition on the seventh day of the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Solleftea, Sweden.

In the inaugural mixed relay, Russia started off with Maria Iovleva, gold medallist in the women's sitting cross-country skiing sprint race, who came to the first exchange in seventh place. Elena Remizova and her guide Natalia Yakimova kept the Russian team in seventh place before four-time world champion Mikhailina Lysova (guide Alexey Ivanov) advanced to second, behind Ukraine.

Three-time world champion Nikolay Polukhin and his guide Andrey Tokarev then overtook Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova on the last leg to secure the gold medal.

Ukraine was leading the race until the very last leg, but could not hold off a strong Russian team. Iruii Utkin (guide Viatlii Kazakov), Oleksandra Kononova and Iuliia Batenkova took home the silver medal in the end, 17 seconds behind Russia.

Germany's relay squad included double world champion Andrea Eskau, bronze medallist Wilhelm Brem (guide Florian Grimm) and standing skier Tino Uhlig, who skied the first leg and came to the exchange zone in third position. Brem then gained one spot on the second leg to exchange second behind Ukraine. Eskau moved back to third before Brem brought home the relay in third place, 24 seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher, Sweden.

In the mixed relay, each team has to include at least one woman, and may include all impairment categories. Each skier gets a certain percentage assigned depending on his or her impairment, and sit skiers and female skiers get a bonus percentage. Each team cannot go over a total of 330 per cent for all skiers.

Russia and Ukraine also topped the podium in the open team relay, where the combined percentage of a team could not go over 370 per cent. Female skiers could take part in the relay but it was not mandatory.

Russia started off with three-time world champion in the sitting category, Roman Petushkov, who had to ski against standing skiers Vegard Dahle of Norway, Benjamin Daviet of France and Ihor Reptyukh of Ukraine.

Dahle exchanged first for Norway, followed by Daviet and Petushkov, who handed over to Vladislav Lekomtcev, World champion in the men's standing sprint race. Lekomtcev then passed Norway's Hakan Olsrud to take the lead.

In the meantime, Anatolii Kovalevskyi and his guide Oleksandr Mukshyn went ahead of France's Yannick Bourseaux, silver medallist in the men's standing biathlon long distance race, to hand over to their teammate Olga Prylutska (guide Volodymyr Mogylnyi) in third position.

On the third leg, it was a fight between sit skiers Trygve Steinar Larsen for Norway and world champion Grigory Murygin for Russia, with the better end for Murygin. He secured a 16-second lead for Russia's last skier Rushan Minnegulov, two time medallist at these World Championships, which was enough to bring home the second gold medal of the day for Russia.

France gained again one spot on the third leg, which was Benjamin Daviet's second leg of the relay. He passed up Prylutska on the track before handing over to Thomas Clarion and his guide Julien Bourla.

The Ukrainian team however had one of their strongest skiers on the fourth leg with multiple medallist Vitaliy Lukyanenko (guide Borys Babar). The duo skied their hearts out and not only passed France's Clarion but also Norway's world champion Nils-Erik Ulset, to take the silver medal. Just two seconds behind, Norway finished in third place, 25 seconds ahead of France.

The 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships will conclude on Tuesday (5 March) with the cross-country skiing middle distance races.

All events from the Championships will be streamed live on the IPC's YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/ParalympicSportTV.

For more information on the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships, please visit the event website at www.ipcnordicskiingworlds.org.

You can also follow the action on Twitter @IPCNordic and like the IPC Nordic Skiing Facebook page.

For more information contact: craig.spence@paralympic.org or call +49-228-2097-230. Alternatively, please visit www.paralympic.org.

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