Yu Shuang wins VI Sprint thriller at Finsterau World Cup

Less than half a second separated the top three in a riveting Vision Impaired (VI) Sprint Classic final at the FIS Para Cross-Country World Cup stop in Finsterau (GER) on Saturday January 17.

Yu Shuang (CHN; guide Jincai Shang) just about came out on top, taking victory by 0.19 from Sochi 2014 Paralympic Sprint silver medalist Oleg Ponomarev (RUS) and Andrei Romanov. Jake Adicoff (USA) and Peter Wolter, who had won both the Interval Start and Mass Start earlier in the week, was just a quarter of a second further back with the beaten duo lunging desperately for the line.

Zebastian Modin (SWE; Emil Talsi) was third in his semi-final as he just missed out on the final, but holds a sizable lead in the overall standings from Piotr Garbowski (POL; guide Jakub Twardowski).

In the women’s VI Sprint, Anastasiia Bagiian thought she had secured back-to-back wins after her Mass Start triumph on Thursday. The Russian crossed the line over a second ahead of Simona Bubenickova (CZE), but was then disqualified due to her guide Sergei Siniakin committing a Classic technique violation.

That handed the victory to 17-year-old Bubenickova and David Srutek with Yue Wang (CHN; Guoming Chen) a distant second. Linn Kazmaier (GER; Florian Baumann) rounded out the podium in third with teammate Leonie Walter, who was third in her semi-final, well clear in the overall standings.

Vilde Nilsen (NOR) returned to the top of the podium to strengthen her position at the top of the Standing series.

After recovering from illness, the five-time overall World Cup winner was third in Interval Start and Mass Start having won all three races in the Canmore (CAN) season-opener. But Nilsen was back to her best at the weekend as she set the fastest time in qualification before winning her semi-final.

Familiar rival Natalie Wilkie (CAN) posed a major threat in the final, but Nilsen prevailed by almost three seconds to regain the winning thread. Sydney Peterson (USA) took third.

Masters and Westemaier on top again

Oksana Masters (USA) dominated the women’s Sitting Sprint, winning her final by almost seven seconds from Anja Wicker (GER). The American had won Wednesday’s Interval Start before taking second in the Mass Start.

Shiyu Wang (CHN) was six seconds further back in third ahead of Kendall Gretsch (USA). With Yunji Kim (KOR) going out in the semi-finals, Masters now leads the overall Sitting standings by 50 points.

Cristian Westemaier (BRA) backed up his Mass Start win with men’s Sitting Sprint victory. As on Thursday, he was pushed close with Yerbol Khamitov (KAZ) less than half a second behind. Zhongwu Mao (CHN) took third.

Despite only finishing 17th in qualification, Giuseppe Romele (ITA) remains atop the series standings. But his lead is down to 59 points over Pavlo Bal (UKR) who took fourth place in the Sprint final.

Raman Svirydzenka (BLR) upgraded his Mass Start second to a first World Cup win in the men’s Standing Sprint. The 21-year-old was only third in qualification, but won his semi-final before taking the final by just over a second from Vitalii Malyshev (RUS). Sebastian Marburger was third with the German now trailing series leader Taiki Kawayoke (JPN) by 48 points.

Russia take relay spoils

Sunday saw the Open and Mixed 4x2.5km Relays with Ponomarev leading Russia to victory in the former. He headed Adicoff after the first leg with the American also skiing the anchor leg for USA 2 with Masters unwell.

USA 2 lost ground on the second and third legs, eventually finishing sixth, as Marburger sent Germany 2 into the lead at the midway point ahead of Malyshev and Team Russia. These two were a long way clear of the rest, and Aleksandr Pronkov put Russia into a decisive lead on leg three ahead of Linn Kazmaier.

Vladislav Lekomtsev anchored the Russians to victory by 18 seconds from Germany 2 with China 1 edging out Norway for third place.

The closing Mixed Relay was far closer but also went to Russia. Ivan Golubkov just trailed Westemaier on the first leg with Evgenii Chernyi keeping the team on track.

Bagiian skiied well but China's Yue Wang meant there was little between the two teams on the final leg. And Stanislav Chokhlaev (guide Oleg Kolodiichuk) stayed in front of Chenyang Wang with Russia winning by just 1.6 seconds. Having been in contention three legs, Ukraine finished over half a minute back in third.

The third and final stop of the Para Cross-Country World Cup is at Szklarska Poreba-Jakuszyce (POL) from January 28 to February 1. After the Sprint Free on the opening Wednesday, there are 10km Interval Starts on the Thursday and Saturday, with a 10km Mass Start closing the season on the Sunday.