Ukraine clean sweep for ‘soldiers who protect us’
On an emotional day, hosts China increase their record haul to eight golds
A sense of purpose washed over Ukrainian athletes on day four of the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games, as gold medallist Iryna Bui led a clean sweep of the podium in the women’s middle distance standing 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 on Russia’s invasion of her country.
Paralympic debutant Liu Mengtao, 20, won China’s eighth gold with victory in the Para biathlon men’s middle distance.
Bui Ukraine athletes took centre stage, with Bui top of the podium along with Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko. “With our performance we represent the whole country and this is our battle here,” Bui said.
“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 20 Paralympians competing in Beijing. Their presence 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 have been among the top performers in Beijing, bagging six gold medals, seven silver and four bronze to put them second on the table behind China.
The women’s biathlon was the second podium sweep for Ukraine in the discipline, after Vitaliy Lukyanenko, Oleksandr Kazik and Dmytro Suiarko won gold, silver and bronze in the men’s vision impaired sprint.
While the Beijing Winter Olympics encountered freezing temperatures, at times halting competition, the Paralympic Winter Games have the opposite issue. On day four, there were challenges for organisers and athletes with snow melting amid warmer weather. Chinese para Alpine skier Liu Sitong, who has won two bronze medals in women’s sitting events, 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 different to what we’re used to,” Liu said.
Rising temperatures prompted organisers to bring forward the super combined competitions by a day, where the temperature hovered around 5 degrees Celsius at the finish area.
The changing conditions, however, did little to slow the success of Chinese athletes, with another gold added to their record haul on day four. Liu Mengtao, who took bronze in the biathlon men’s sprint sitting on Saturday, finished the 10km men’s middle distance sitting race yesterday in 30 minutes, 37.7 seconds, missing three shots in 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.”
Liu said China had 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 yesterday.
“We’ve been longing to break that record for him. Now as you can see, our hard work paid off.”