PyeongChang 2018: Cross-country flash quotes day 2

Athletes' reaction following competition cross-country skiing 12km/15km 11 Mar 2018
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Canada's Emily Young in cross-country skiing at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

Canada's Emily Young in cross-country skiing at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

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Kendall GRETSCH (USA) - gold - women's cross-country 12km, sitting

"For cross-country, I was pretty unsure going in here. I knew that since our last World Cup, I had improved a lot, but you never know until you race where you stand, so just happy with how things went today and I was able to put together another good race.

"It's just a very humbling experience being able to hear your anthem for your country. It's just kind of putting everything into perspective and knowing that you're here not just for yourself, but for your country is amazing."

Andrea ESKAU (GER) - silver - women's cross-country 12km, sitting

"I'm really happy about that, it was a really tough race, it was hard for me. I beat [USA's bronze medallist] Oksana Masters and I thought she's absolutely the top favourite, so I'm absolutely happy with the result.

"I couldn't go much faster, Kendall [Gretsch, USA's gold medallist] was out of sight."

Maksym Yarovyi (UKR) - gold - men's cross-country 15km, sitting

"It's the most important medal of my life. I've been working hard for eight years to get it and I am thrilled. I fell (in the biathlon race) yesterday and the bad shooting messed with my head, but now, after eight years of work, I got my first gold at the Paralympics and I'm very happy. This is the best medal of my career and I will try harder and harder to get more.

"We want to prove here that any obstacle can be overcome. After each fall, you need to get up. I had a hard race yesterday. I missed a whole bunch of times and I fell. This threw me off a bit, but I collected myself for today and proved that I can battle."

"It was hard. Everything is melting, everything is mush. For my class, it is very hard, especially the climbs. But I kept trying. I wanted it so bad. I was grinding snow with my teeth to get this gold medal. I was going for it and at last, I took it.

"On the last lap, I thought I was going to lose. I was told that I am coming first, but in the last lap, even though I was trying very hard, I thought I lost 10 or 15 seconds. But it actually turned out that I managed to gain time.

"I won and I'm in shock."

Daniel CNOSSEN (USA) - silver - men's cross-country 15km, sitting

"I've already exceeded my expectations. I'm very proud to represent the US and my real result is my own effort and today I dug as deep as I could and went as hard as I could and that, regardless of where I ended up on the results, is my success. Just to go as hard as I could."

SIN Eui Hyun (KOR) - bronze - men's cross-country 15km, sitting

"It's the first time we got this medal, so I'm very glad to do this.

"The sport is not very popular in this country, so I hope that with this bronze medal, this sport can get recognised by many more people and get more popular.

"I did my best. I just want to say a great congratulations to the other medallists because they got a better time. For the next Games, I will make an even better performance."