Winter Paralympics preview: Para biathlon finals day three

Rookies going against legends on the final day of Para biathlon action at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre 10 Mar 2022
Imagen
A female athlete lying on the floor aiming with the rival in her hands.
Iryna Bui of Ukraine is aiming for gold in Beijing after finishing first at the Lillehammer 2021 Worlds in Norway
ⒸSamuel Andersen
By Aurore Gander | For World Para Snow Sports

The Para biathlon action at the Beijing 2022 concludes on Friday (11 March) with the men's and women's individual events at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. 

The 12.5km event will see gold medallists crowned in sitting, standing and vision impaired classes.

Here is all you need to know about Friday!

SITTING EVENTS

USA’s Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters arrive to the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games as favourites for gold. Gretsch is the world champion from Lillehammer 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships with Masters taking bronze in the same event.

Masters was the winner in the sprint event on Saturday (5) while Gretsch took gold in the middle-distance event on Tuesday (8).

Germany's Anja Wicker (bronze in the middle-distance) and China's Yilin Shan (silver in the sprint) were the only athletes to reach the women's sitting podium apart from the US stars.

Germany’s Martin Fleig will have a hard task of defending his title won four years ago in South Korea in the men's sitting class. He finished in 15th position at the recent Lillehammer 2021 Worlds with a great margin behind the winner Pavlo Bal from Ukraine.

USA athletes Daniel Cnossen and Aaron Pike will have the experience in their favour going into their third Winter Paralympics. Cnossen is the silver medalist from PyeongChang 2018, while Pike won the silver medal in Lillehammer in January.

 

China won the two men's Para biathlon sitting events so far at Beijing 2022 with Zixu Liu in the sprint and Mengtao Liu in the middle-distance. 

STANDING EVENTS

Team Ukraine is the clear favourite to top the podium in the women's standing event.

Iryna Bui is the world champion from Lillehammer 2021, while Oleksandra Kononova holds two Paralympic gold medals at the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Kononova was behind Bui at the Worlds in January with Liudmyla Liashenko coming in third to make it all-Ukrainian podium. The three shared the exact same positions in the women's middle-distance standing podium in Zhangjiakou on Tuesday.

China won the sprint event on Saturday (5) with Yujie Guo leaving Liashenko in second.

In the men’s standing event, Norway’s Nils-Erik Ulset will participate in his sixth and last Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing. He decided to end his career after Beijing 2022. Canada’s Mark Arendz will be accompanying Ulset in his fourth Paralympic appearance with the task of defending the title won in PyeongChang.

He already picked a silver in the men's middle-distance and a bronze in the sprint event. Ukraine's Grygorii Vovchynskyi took gold in the sprint and silver in the middle-distance and is another strong podium contender

Silver at PyeongChang 2018, France's Benjamin Daviet will be targeting his first Para biathlon podium in Beijing motivated after his Para cross-country skiing sprint gold on Wednesday (9).

VISION IMPAIRED EVENTS

Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova and Germany's Leonie Maria Walter have one gold each in the women's Para biathlon vision impaired events in Beijing so far.

Shyshkova won the sprint and took a silver in the middle-distance behind Walter - also bronze in the sprint.

The other Para biathlon medallists in vision impaired events will again be in action: Germany's Linn Kazmaier, silver in the sprint, and China's Yue Wang, bronze in the women's middle-distance.

Ukraine will also be targeting a third podium sweep in the men's Para biathlon vision impaired events following their triumphs in the sprint and middle-distance.

Vitaliy Lukyanenko won both events with Dmytro Suiarko taking the bronze medal. The only difference on the podium was the name of the silver medallist. 

Bronze medallist in the individual event at January's World Championships and silver at PyeongChang 2018, Oleksandr Kazik finished second in the sprint at Beijing 2022. Anatolii Kovalevskyi was the silver medallist in the middle-distance.

In his sixth Paralympic Winter Games, Lukyanenko will be defending the individual event title from four years ago in South Korea.

Live streaming (geo-blocked in some territories) 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.