IPC Announces March Athlete of the Month Shortlist

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced its shortlist of five for February’s ‘Athlete of the Month’ poll which the public are invited to vote for.

The award recognizes the best performances of the last month and unsurprisingly all five on the shortlist this time round are from Winter Sports.

The public, who can choose the winner of the coveted title, via www.facebook.com/ParalympicSport.TV have until Friday 4 March to cast their vote.

The shortlist for February consists of:

Team Italy – After finishing second in their Group in the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships in Sweden, no-one gave Italy a hope of beating favourites Norway in the semi-finals. However after a 2:1 victory they then went on to beat Czech Republic 2:0 in the final to win gold – quite an achievement for a country that only started playing in 2006.

Irek Zaripov (Russia) - Won three out of four Men’s Sitting races - the Cross-Country Skiing Pursuit, the 15km race and the Biathlon Pursuit - at the recent World Cup Finals event in Germany. Winning these races secured him the overall World Cup rankings in both Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing.

Mikhalina Lysova (Russia) – In the Women’s visually impaired category at the World Cup Finals in Germany, Lysova (Guide Alexey Ivanov) won both Biathlon races and the Cross-Country Skiing pursuit. She topped the Biathlon World Cup rankings with a perfect score of 700 points.

Ivan Frantsev (Russia)- At the Paralympic Winter World Cup in Sweden Franstev won three gold medals in the visually impaired category – two in Giant Slalom and one in Slalom.

Katarzyna Rogowiec (Poland) - In the Women’s standing category she won three out of four Cross-Country races at the Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Cup Finals in Germany.