There were emotional scenes on day four of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing as Ukrainian athletes completed two podium sweeps at the National Biathlon Centre in Zhangjiakou and one revealed that his house had been destroyed on Monday in the Russian invasion.
Iryna Bui won the women’s standing 10km race nearly 13 seconds ahead of her compatriot Oleksandra Kononova in silver. Liudmyla Liashenko took bronze.
In the men’s middle distance vision impaired biathlon, Vitaliy Lukyanenko came out on top by nearly 45 seconds as Ukrainian para biathletes finished in the top five places in the race. Anatolii Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko won the silver and bronze. Afterwards, Suiarko spoke powerfully: “I am happy, but you know the situation in Ukraine. Very hard concentration is needed in biathlon and I missed twice because yesterday my house where I live, it was bombed and destroyed.”
Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova nearly added her third gold of these Games in the middle-distance vision impaired category biathlon, but with two misses in the shooting she fell agonisingly short, finishing 3.7 seconds behind Germany’s 18-year-old Leonie Maria Walter, who added gold to her previous two bronze medals.
There was a US one-two in the women’s sitting middle-distance biathlon when Ukraine-born Oksana Masters picked up a 13th combined career medal at the Winter and Summer Paralympics with a silver behind team-mate Kendall Gretsch. Masters led for two-thirds of the 10km course, but despite picking up one shooting penalty, Gretsch finished 8.7 seconds ahead in the end. Liu Mengtao won China’s eighth gold medal of the Games in the men’s sitting event.
China lead the way in the medal table, with eight golds and 27 medals in total. Ukraine are second with six golds, and Canada third with five golds after Mark Arendz won the men’s 10km standing biathlon.
Great Britain’s wheelchair curlers are at risk of not reaching the semi-finals after playing six of their 10 round robin matches. The quartet of Gregor Ewan, Hugh Nibloe, Meggan Dawson-Farrell and David Melrose defeated Estonia 10-5 in the early morning session in a match which swung in the fifth end when four points for the British team stretched their lead to 9-4, and Estonia could not recover.
However a 6-4 defeat to Sweden later in the day left the British team with only a 50% win ratio, and down in joint-seventh place in the rankings. They face Canada and South Korea on Wednesday in matches that will prove pivotal. Sweden lead the rankings, with defending champions and hosts China in second place.
In the para ice hockey contest Canada secured their spot in the semi-finals with a comprehensive 6-0 victory over South Korea at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium. James Dunn scored a hat-trick for the 2018 silver-medallists. South Korea now face a play-off on Wednesday against Italy.
The play-off for the last semi-final spot will pitch China against the Czech Republic. The hosts won the group match between the pair 5-2 on Sunday. Defending champions the US are seeking their fifth Paralympic title, and have already progressed through to the semi-finals, which take place on Friday.
Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris 2024 Olympic organising committee for the Olympics and Paralympics, has supported the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in the Beijing Paralympics. He told French newspaper Midi Libre: “The sports world has always tried to keep athletes away from politics. Given the gravity of the situation, it required going a step further, including making decisions that may impact athlete participation. Everything you normally want to avoid. But in a serious and exceptional situation, serious and exceptional measure. I understand that and I support it.”
He also offered direct support for Ukrainian athletes, saying that the Paris 2024 team had already made donations to relief efforts, and had been asked to help athletes who had been training in France to return home. Of those currently in China he said: “I have a special thought of support for the Ukrainian athletes who will compete in extremely difficult conditions, but who will be keen to defend the colours of their country.”
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced the winners of its 2022 International Women’s Day Recognition Awards. New Zealand’s Paralympics Committee was rewarded for its effort to strive for gender equality, while Zimbabwe’s coach Oripa Mubika and Singapore’s Paralympic champion Yip Pin Xiu were also recognised. The awards are for those who inspire and serve as positive role models.
