Biathlon World Cup winners decided

All overall winners of the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup biathlon events are Russian following middle distance races at Oberried, Germany, on Sunday (26 January). 27 Jan 2014

The women's visually impaired podium at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup biathlon finals featured overall Russian World Cup winner Mikhalina Lysova as well as teammate Iuliia Budaleeva and Ukrainian Oksana Shyshkova.

ⒸFlorian Lorenz

By IPC

Full overall rankings for the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup can be viewed on IPC Nordic Skiing's website.

Russian skiers have taken all six titles in the biathlon portion of the 2013-14 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup following another series of victories across all middle-distance races at the finals in Oberried, Germany, on Sunday (26 January).

Full overall rankings for the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup can be viewed on IPC Nordic Skiing's website.

World champion Mikhalina Lysova and guide Alexey Ivanov (31:29.6) just beat teammate Iuliia Budaleeva, guided by Tatiana Maltseva (32:40.6) by 20 points following her win in the women’s visually impaired over 10km. Despite finishing in third, Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova and guide Lada Nesterenko (34:40.4) could not beat Russian Elena Remizova and guide Natalia Yakimova to third place in the rankings.

In partly cloudy, 1.5 degrees Celsius, Lysova finished with 680 points, to Budaleeva’s 660 points and Remizova’s 485 points.

In the men’s standing, Azat Karachurin picked up his third win of the meet in 35:34.0 and a healthy World Cup lead (705 points) over Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset with 454 points. Frenchman Daviet Benjamin took second (36:02.4) ahead of Ukrainian world champion Ihor Reptyukh (36:03.6). Aleksandr Pronkov beat Canada’s Mark Arendz to World Cup third by just seven points (397 points).

Russia’s Roman Petushkov sealed his World Cup victory (650 points) with his fifth podium finish this season (37:43.1). Teammates Alexey Bychenok (38:19.1) and Grigory Murygin (38:45.3) claimed second and third, respectively, with Murygin taking second in the overall standings (456 points). Compatriot Aleksandr Davidovich finished third overall (451 points).

Triple biathlon world champion Nikolay Polukhin finished atop the men’s visually impaired with guide Andrey Tokarev (780 points) following another perfect win over 12.5km (35:25.7). Russian cross-country World Cup winner Stanislav Chokhlaev, guided by Maksim Pirogov, dropped just one shot to claim second in the race (35:45.4) and in the standings (502 points). Ukrainian Anatolii Kovaleyskyi and guide Oleksandr Mukshyn completed the podium (37.14.1) and World Cup top three (340 points).

The Russians blocked out the top three in the women’s sitting rankings following another win for Svetlana Konovalova (38:08.8) and second place for Marta Zaynullina (39:03.0). Konovalova (635 points) and Zaynullina (595 points) led teammate Andreeva Nadezda (424 points), but Germany’s Andrea Eskau finished the competition at home with a final flourish to claim third in the race (39:13.6).

Alena Kaufman (485 points) and Natalia Bratiuk (456 points) had a close fight for first and second in the rankings, despite neither making it into the top three in the women’s standing race. Anna Milenina took victory (31:57.6), ahead of two Ukrainians – Oleksandra Kononova (32:26.6), who finished third in the rankings with a second place in the race, and Iuliia Batenkova (34:48.7).

Races in Oberried concluded the 2013-14 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup. A series of smaller competitions will now be held in La Feclaz, France, and Kirchzarten, Germany, before the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games begin on 7 March.