Cross-Country Event Completes Second Day in Vuokatti

The second day at the 2009 IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championship in Vuokatti, Finland, saw a strong showing of athletes on Monday, 26 January.

The Cross-Country Skiing 10/15/20km Classic Technique event dominated the day, with a 10:00am start time. The first medal went to Finland’s Ilkka Tuomisto in the Men’s Standing 20km, with his time of 56:20.8. Tuomisto was followed by Russia’s Oleg Balukhto and Viacheslav Laikov. Balukhto was less than one second behind Tuomisto.

Starting just 15 minutes after the Men’s Standing 20km race, the Men’s Visually Impaired 20km race saw Canadian duo Robin (guide) and Brian McKeever in first with a time of 52:35.8. Russians Nikolay Polukhin and Andrey Tokarev (guide), and Germans Frank Hoefle and Johannes Wachlin (guide) came in second and third respectively.

The final Men’s race was in the 15km Sitting Category. Russians Roman Petushkov and Irek Zaripov came in first and second respectively, with Belarusian Aliaksandr Davidovich closely in third.

In the Women’s Standing 15km event, Iulia Batenkova from Ukraine took first position with a time of 48:49.9. Batenkova was followed by Anna Burmistrova from Russia and Jody Barber from Canada. In the Women’s Visually Impaired category for 15km, Russian duos took all top three positions. Tatiana Ilyuchenko and Valery Kochkin (guide) came in first with a calculated time of 48:13.6.

The final Women’s event was the Sitting 10km race. Liudmila Vauchok from Belarus took first with a time of 34:37.3. Vauchok was followed by Olena Iurkovska and Lyudmyla Pavlenko from Ukraine.

The 2009 IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championships continue this week, with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, 1 February.