Winter Paralympics preview: Para biathlon day two

Para biathlon returns to the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre on Tuesday (8 March) after a two-day break. Medals in women’s and men’s middle-distance events are up for grabs at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Here is all you need to know!

SITTING EVENTS

China, Germany and USA are likely to battle out for podium places in the women's middle-distance sitting event.

Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch already gave USA a gold and a bronze, respectively in the sprint event on Saturday (5 March).

It was Masters' first gold in Para biathlon but it was Gretsch who finished first in the middle-distance at January's World Championships in Lillehammer, Norway - Masters finished third.

Yilin Shan separated the two USA athletes on the sprint podium to give China its first Para biathlon Paralympic medal. She will be aiming to go one better on Tuesday while Germany's Anja Wicker is another medal contender in Zhangjiakou.

The defending Paralympic champion Taras Rad of Ukraine will make his second Games appearance in Beijing. He was second-placed at the Lillehammer 2021 and is coming to the Winter Paralympics in fine form following his silver in the men's sprint sitting.

Zixu Liu was the winner in the sprint event with China also picking a bronze medal with Mengtao Liu. Both will be in action again as the hosts will have four athletes in search of a medal on the second day of Para biathlon.

USA’s PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist Daniel Cnossen will try his best to transform silver into gold after a poor performance in Lillehammer where he finished in 11th place.

STANDING EVENTS

Ukraine’s superstar Liudmyla Liashenko is one of the favourites to gold in the women's middle-distance standing going into her third Winter Paralympics in Beijing. The 28-year-old is a back-to-back world champion and a bronze medal winner in the event from PyeongChang 2018.

Liashenko's compatriots Iryna Bui and Oleksandra Kononova shared the podium with her in Lillehammer. Bui won silver and is coming to Beijing to try and improve on the fourth place from Pyeongchang 2018. Kononova had to settle for bronze in Lillehammer.

Yujie Guo will be looking for a second biathlon gold after her triumph in the women's standing event beating Liashenko - who had to settle for silver.

France’s Benjamin Daviet is the defending Paralympic champion in the men's event. Only a year later, Daviet became a world champion at the Prince George 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships.

His winning streak was stopped at the Lillehammer 2021 Worlds when he finished third but less than two months later he has the chance to pull a comeback in the middle-distance.

Ukraine's Grygorii Vovchynskyi will be one of his main obstacles to reach gold again as the winner of the men's sprint standing on Saturday. Canada's bronze medallist Mark Arendz will also be aiming for a second biathlon podium in Beijing.

VISION IMPAIRED EVENTS

Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kazik is targeting the gold medal after winning silver in the event at PyeongChang 2018 in his first Paralympic appearance. He also picked a silver in the men's sprint in Beijing.

It was an Ukrainian podium sweep with gold to Vitalii Lukianenko and bronze to Dmytro Suiarko. The European nation also picked the fifth (Anatolii Kovalevskyi) and sixth (Iaroslav Reshetynskyi) places with China's Shuang Yu sandwiched in fourth place.

All six will be in action again on Tuesday. 

Gold medallist in the women's sprint Ukraine's Oksana Shyshkova also topped the podium in the Para cross-country skiing long-distance on Monday. In both races she was followed by Germany's Linn Kazmaier and Maria Leonie Walter.

While the trio is the favourite to reach the podium again, Yue Wang will be keen to put the host nation in medal position.

Live streaming and live results from Beijing 2022 will be available on Paralympic.org. You can follow all the action, behind the scenes and news on World Para Snow Sports social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.