It was not all smooth sailing for the winter sport powerhouse, however, as their stark rivals Ukraine battled their way to two gold medals in the men's 10 kilometres cross country standing and women's 5km standing.

Ihor Reptyukh finished 10th in the 10km event at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games.

He saw vast improvements in Finland today, though, as he got the better of Russia's Paralympic champion Aleksandr Pronkov and bronze medallist Vladislav Lekomtcev, who finished third and second respectively.

Reptukh's time of 27min 04.9sec was an impressive 14 seconds quicker than that of second placed Lekomtcev and almost 16 seconds quicker than Pronkov.

Reptukh's winning margin was nothing in comparison to his team mate Oleksandra Kononova, as the women's 5km standing bronze medallist from Sochi finished the distance in 16:06.2, a whopping 40 seconds clear of compatriot Liudmyla Liashenko in second.

Canada's Brittant Hudak rounded off the podium in third, finishing a further 41 seconds behind.

Ihor Reptyukh was pick of the bunch for Ukraine as he bested Sochi medallist from Russia to win the 10 km cross country standing ©Getty Images



It was back to normal for Russia in the other four races of the day as they took gold in each, including the top two podium positions in the men's 10km sitting and women's 5km visually impaired races.

Ivan Golubkov, who finished second in Wednesday's biathlon sprint, easily took the win in the men's sitting finishing well ahead of his teammate Aleksandr Davidovich in a time of 27:22.6.

Third place went to Canada's Chris Klebl in 28:24.2.

Iulia Budaleeva and guide Tatiana Maltseva, winners in the women's 6km visually impaired biathlon sprint earlier in the week, added a second gold today with victory in the 5km visually impaired cross country event, finishing in 16:19.2.

The duo's compatriots Elena Remizova and guide Maksim Pirogov came home second as they clocked 16:39.3 whilst the Ukrainian pair of Oksana Shyshkova and guide Lada Nesterenko completed the podium.

Marta Zaynullina claimed victory in the women's 5km sitting, her second win in three events in Vuokatti, as she stopped the clock on 15:49.9.

In the closest race of the day, with less than 17 seconds separating the top three, the United States' Oksana Masters was second, edging out Maria Iovleva in third.

The men's visually impaired 10km was won by the Sochi 2014 silver medallists in this event Stanislav Chokhlaev and his guide Evgenii Fatkhullin.

The pair finished in 28.17.6 ahead of France's Thomas Clarion and guide Julien Bourla in second, whilst Vladmir Udaltcov and guide Ruslan Bogachev were third.

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