CANADIAN CAPTURES IPC WORLD CUP GOLD

Canada’s Brian McKeever won a gold medal in a five-kilometre cross-country ski race Thursday at the first stop in the IPC World Cup circuit. The 17-time Paralympic medallist from Canmore, Alta., clocked a time of 11 minutes and 4.6 seconds in the visually impaired category. McKeever welcomed back guide Graham Nishikawa of Whitehorse, who returned from a back injury. McKeever skated without a guide in a silver-medal performance in Wednesday’s distance race. Meanwhile, Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm, B.C., finished fourth in the women’s 2.5 kilometre skate-ski race with a time of 6:46.2. Norway’s Vilde Nilsen was first.