Brian McKeever wins 10th career Paralympic gold

"We're getting a little long in the tooth, but now is not the time to make those decisions. We're still having fun, we've never been to Korea, so we'll take it one day at a time."

Canada’s Brian McKeever, with guide Erik Carleton, raced to his third Paralympic title at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games on Sunday (16 March), winning the men’s 10km visually impaired cross-country skiing event in a time of 23:18.1.

Russia’s Stanislav Chokhlaev (23:25.1) and France’s Thomas Clarion (24:14.9) finished second and third behind McKeever, who claimed his 10th-career Paralympic gold in Nordic skiing.

McKeever, who became the first Winter Paralympian from Canada to win 10 career golds, has yet to make up his mind about whether he will retire before the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

"We're going to leave the door open,” McKeever said. "We're getting a little long in the tooth, but now is not the time to make those decisions. We're still having fun, we've never been to Korea, so we'll take it one day at a time."

For the first time at Sochi 2014, Russia’s Roman Petushkov failed to medal, finishing fourth in the men’s 10km sitting competition in 31:22.5 after already winning six golds at the Games.

The race was won by Canada’s Chris Klebl in 30:52.0, with Ukraine’s Maksym Yarovyi (31:06.5) taking silver and Russia’s Grigory Murygin (31:18.2) claiming bronze.

Dual-sport athletes Andrea Eskau of Germany and Oksana Masters of the USA both won medals in the women’s 5km sitting race, with Eskau (16:08.6) taking gold and Masters (17:04.8) leaving with the bronze.

Anna Milenina of Russia picked up her second gold of the Games, winning the women’s 5km standing race in 13:31.9 ahead of Ukraine’s Iuliia Batenkovam (13:44.4) and Oleksandra Kononova (13:46.9).

Russia swept the podium in the men’s 10km standing race, with Aleksandr Pronkov (23:59.9), Vladimir Kononov (24:00.7) and Vladislav Lekomtcev (24:06.5) taking gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Pronkov, just 16 years old, is one of the youngest members of the Russian delegation and took his first medal in his last of five events at Sochi 2014.

“I'm 16 years old. I trained with our team for one year. When I was a kid, I wanted to become a football player, but it was impossible,” Pronkov said. “I met my coach and now skiing is my life. I'm now a Paralympic champion.”

The host nation kept up their dominance in the women’s 5km visually impaired event, taking all three spots on the podium once again, with Elena Remizova grabbing the gold in 13:23.8 to give herself three Paralympic titles in Sochi.

Mikhalina Lysova (13:27.7) took the silver, and Iuliia Budaleeva (13:28.6) finished in the bronze-medal position.

Russia finished with a total of 32 medals in the Sochi 2014 cross-country skiing competition, including 12 golds, nine silvers and 11 bronze.