A sense of purpose washed over Ukrainian athletes on day four of the Winter Paralympics, as gold medallist Iryna Bui led a clean sweep of the podium in the women’s biathlon.
“We would like to dedicate our results and medals to each and every Ukrainian and all the soldiers in the Ukrainian army who protect us,” Bui said after the medal ceremony. Bui placed first, with Oleksandra Kononova taking silver and Liudmyla Liashenko bronze.
“With our performance we represent the whole country and this is our battle here,” she added.
“The whole world knows what’s going on in Ukraine at the moment and now I know that I have a mission here.”
Ukraine has a team of 20 Paralympians competing in Beijing, as Russia continues to wage war in the country. Their presence at the Winter Paralympics has been hailed as “one of the most fantastic stories ever at any edition of the Paralympic Games” by International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons.
Ukraine has also been among the top performers in Beijing, so far bagging six gold medals, seven silver and four bronze to put them in a strong second place behind host nation China at the end of day four.
The women’s biathlon was the second podium sweep for Ukraine in the sport, after Vitaliy Lukyanenko, Oleksandr Kazik and Dmytro Suiarko won gold, silver and bronze in the men’s vision impaired sprint.
Day four of the Beijing Games had posed some challenges for organisers and competing athletes.
While the Beijing Olympics encountered freezing temperatures, at times halting competition, the Paralympics is facing the opposite issue as warmer weather results in melting snow.
Chinese para Alpine skier Liu Sitong has won two bronze medals in women’s sitting events, but said the condition of the snow had deteriorated since the start of the Games.
“You see a lot of athletes have failed to finish. It’s because this type of snow is still different to what we’re used to skiing on,” Liu said.
The rising temperatures prompted organisers to bring forward the super combined competitions by a day to Monday, where temperatures hovered around 5 degrees at the finish area.
The changing conditions however have done little to slow the success of Chinese athletes, with day 4 seeing China add more gold to its record haul.
Paralympic debutant Liu Mengtao, 20, claimed an eighth overall gold for China with victory in the Para biathlon men’s middle distance.
Liu, who took a bronze in the Para biathlon men’s sprint sitting on Saturday, finished the 10km race in 30 minutes and 30.7 seconds, missing three shots in the four rounds of prone shooting.
“My skiing was fine today, but the shots, not that good,” Liu said. “I tried my best, so I am satisfied. I want the Chinese flag to rise to the highest tip. That’s where I got the motivation.”
Commenting on his country’s incredible performance on home turf, Liu said China has been “longing” to cement its place in Paralympic history.
“China was not strong in winter Paralympic sports. The best individual result we had at Pyeongchang 2018 was Zheng Peng’s fourth place in Para cross country,” Liu said after the race.
“We’ve been longing to break that record for him. Now as you can see, our hard work paid off.”
This article was first published in Asia One . All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
