Defiant Ukraine top paralympics table

UKRAINIAN athletes put on a defiant display during the first day of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, topping the medal tables with three golds.

As the world willed them on, the country’s athletes got off to a blistering start, later dedicating their seven-medal total to those suffering back home.

Biathlete Grygorii Vovchynskyi claimed Ukraine’s first gold as he triumphed in the men’s sprint standing event.

Oksana Shyshkova won the women’s sprint vision impaired, Vitaliy Lukianenko led a Ukrainian one-two-three in the men’s event.

The 20 Ukrainian athletes and nine guides spent four days travelling to China.