Iuliia Budaleeva, guided by Tatiana Maltseva, followed up her success in yesterday's women's cross-country long distance race to top the podium in the visually impaired six kilometres sprint race with a time of 17min 22.20sec.

Budaleeva shot perfectly as she finished ahead of Ukraine's Oksana Shyshkova, guided by Lada Nesterenko, in 17:33.80, and Olga Prylutska, another Ukrainian guided by Borys Babar, in 17:35.10.

Her compatriot Stanislav Chokhlaev, guided by Evgenii Fatkhullin, won the men's 7.5km visually impaired title after the closest race of the day.

Despite missing one shot, Chokhlaev posted a time of 19:04.10 to finish a mere 0.5 seconds ahead of Ukraine's Anatolii Kovalevskyi, who presented a clean sheet guided by Oleksandr Mukshyn, while fellow Russian Nikolay Polukhin, guided by Andrey Tokarev, took the bronze medal in 19:16.00.

World champion Vladislav Lekomtcev dominated the men's standing, shooting perfectly on his way to clocking a time of 17:20.10, staving off the challenge of Norway's Nils-Erik Ulset in 18:05.00, and Canada's Mark Arendz in 18:06.10.

Russia's Aleksandr Davidovich triumphed in the men's sitting biathlon event in the IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup finals in Surnadal ©Getty Images




Aleksandr Davidovich brought up Russia's fourth gold medal of the day, topping the podium in the men's sitting with a time of 21:11.80, without missing a single shot.

Germany's Martin Fleig took the silver medal in 21:45.80, and was 2.2 seconds ahead of world champion Maksym Yarvoyi of Ukraine.

Fleig's team mate Anja Wicker won the women's sitting race in 20:18.10, after a confident performance on the track as well as at the shooting range, followed by Russia's Natalia Kocherova in 21:04.60 and Belarus' Lidziya Hrafeyeva in 21:21.50.

In the women's standing, Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova, winner of a six out of a possible six gold medals at the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in January, reigned supreme once more.

After missing one shot, a strong performance on the track saw Kononova post a time of 16:15.30 to beat fellow countrywoman Liudmyla Liashenko, who shot cleanly on her way to registering a time of 16:18.70, and Canada's Brittany Hudak, in 18:30.70.

The action in Surnadal continues through to Sunday (March 22) with middle distance classic cross-country, as well as pursuit and long distance biathlon all set to feature.

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