Golubkov was crowned the champion in the men's middle sitting race, crossing the line in 31min 22.7sec.

Silver went to Giuseppe Romele of Italy, with RPC's Danila Britik taking the bronze medal a fair distance back.

Gretsch took the title in the women's equivalent in a time of 26:57.6, comfortably in front of second-placed Valiantsina Shyts of Belarus.

Germany's Anja Wicker took the bronze, marginally ahead of Birgit Skarstein from the home nation.

Vladislav Lekomtsev was the other RPC winner, after taking gold in the men's middle standing in 32:29.1.

Witold Skupien of Poland won the silver medal, just a couple of seconds in front of a second Russian athlete, Aleksandr Pronkov.

Vilde Nilsen gave Norway a home victory in the women's middle standing race, finishing more than a minute clear of the field in 31:02.4.

American Sydney Peterson claimed silver, 10 seconds ahead of Liudmyla Liashenko, who led a contingent of Ukrainians to the top five.

Belarusian Sviatlana Sakhanenka, with her guide Dzmitry Budzilovich, was clear in the women's middle visually-impaired race in 32:16.4, beating two RPC athletes - Anna Panferova and Vera Khlyzova - who both joined her on the podium.

US' Jake Adicoff won the first gold of the Championships in 33:54.0 with his guide Sam Wood, winning by 16 seconds.

Stanislav Chokhlaev of the RPC won silver and Belarus' Yury Holub took bronze.

Alpine skiing was supposed to get underway today too, but was delayed due to poor conditions.