Day 4: Paralympic Winter Games preview

Tuesday (8 March) will see the return of Para Biathlon where all eyes will be on Chinese and Ukrainian skiers who dominated the sprint on Saturday.

Meanwhile at the Para Ice Hockey, the final Group A game will decide who will join defending champions the USA in the semi-finals.

Round-robin play in wheelchair curling will enter its fourth day as title-holders China begin to find their rhythm and three-time gold medallists Canada try to recover from their first loss.

Para biathlon

Ukraine’s Taras Rad and Oksana Shyshkova are both the defending middle distance champions in the men’s sitting and women’s vision impaired, respectively.

Shyshkova can already call herself a Beijing 2022 winner having sprinted to gold earlier in the competition with guide Andriy Marchenko.

Rad will try to see off the advances of Liu Zixu who just edged him into silver medal position on Saturday. 

Ukraine’s Grigoryii Vovchynskyi took the sprint crown in the men’s standing alongside teammate Vitalii Lukianenko who led an all-Ukrainian top three in the men’s vision impaired with guide Borys Babar.

A series of other Chinese skiers will return in an attempt to claim their second medals at home.

Guo Yujie became the first female biathlete from her country to win a Paralympic title in the sport in the women’s standing. In doing so she beat Ukraine’s world champion Liudmyla Liashenko and the pair’s developing rivalry is one to watch for the future.

China’s Yilin Shan split the USA’s Oksana Masters and her teammate Kendell Gretsch in the women’s sprint sitting. As the world champion, Gretsch will be keen to show her strength on Tuesday.

Para Ice Hockey

With the USA already safely through to the semi-finals, PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Canada and South Korea will be left to fight it out for the other direct spot available from Group A.

Both teams lost their opening games and are therefore level on points.

In Group B, all teams have played two games each so far including China who won both their clashes against Slovakia and Czech Republic. The Chinese will play Italy on Tuesday, a team likely to be bolstered by their incredible overtime win against Slovakia that put them third in the group.

With all but one of the four teams advancing from Group B to the qualification finals, Slovakia will hope to move out of the danger zone when they face Czech Republic who currently sit second.

Wheelchair Curling

Title holders China have an easier day with just one match against the USA to think about. The North America team have won two of their five clashes so far so will be hoping to improve their record.

After a slow start of two losses – including their opening match against Canada - China turned things around and have won their last three games.

PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Norway will be in action twice. Of the five games they have played, the Norwegians have lost three, including against debutants Estonia. They play Latvia and Switzerland.