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Rad not so bad at world championships

Taras Rad was nearly perfect in completing his biathlon trifecta.
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Taras Rad of Ukraine leads Great Britain’s Scott Meenagh around a corner during the men’s individual sitting biathlon long distance race at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships at Otway Nordic Centre on Thursday. – Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Taras Rad was nearly perfect in completing his biathlon trifecta.

The 19-year-old Ukrainian won his third biathlon race of the championships for a clean sweep of the biathlon events, missing just one of 20 targets in four shooting rounds in Thursday's 12.5-kilometre race. The cold weather returned to Otway Nordic Centre and although it was only -15 C at the start it felt much colder with a mild breeze out of the north. It didn't affect Rad's shooting but he felt it on the course sitting in his sled.

"It is very cold today, my legs are completely frozen," said Rad, through his interpreter. "I didn't expect to win gold today but I did my best and tried to make clean shooting and the result put me on the top. One key to my success today was my super-fast skis, my technicians did their job really well."

For Rad, it was his fifth medal of the championships, including his bronze-medal finishes in the cross-country sprint and mid-distance events.

"I like biathlon the most, but as you can see I showed pretty good results in cross-country as well," said Rad. "It's my fifth race now and I am really exhausted but I am still trying to show good results. I have a big team behind me and I don't want to disappoint them."

In the women's sit-ski race, Kendall Gretsch (47:29.4, 0+0+0+0) finally dethroned her American teammate Oksana Masters, who won all four of the previous races this week. Masters (49:31.6, 0+2+0+1) missed three targets while Gretsch shot clean and that three-minute advantage made all the difference.

"It was definitely a good day shooting, especially for the individual (race), the shooting is so important and I just tried to focus on that today," said Gretsch. "I've made a lot of improvements in my shooting this year and it's exciting to put it all together for my last biathlon race here."

Andrea Eskau of Germany (52:13.7 (0+0+1+0) shot 19-for-20 but she said she lacked the power needed to overcome the younger Americans who have so far dominated the women's sit-ski class.

"I wasn't happy with it because I could not power as much on the track, it wasn't fast and I was a bit empty - empty arms," said Eskau. "Normally I'm getting better race to race but today I was a little bit tired. (Gretsch and Masters) dominated the whole World Cup this year and they have been better than the races before so they are even more dominant here than they were in Ostersund (Sweden) or Finland."

Eskau, at 47, is considerably older than Gretsch, who is 26 and Masters, who is 29.

"They almost could be my daughters so I'm not unsatisfied," said Eskau.

Martin Fleig of Germany, the gold medalist in the cross-country mid-distance event, won his second silver medal at Otway, while Vasyl Kravchuk of Ukraine (54:05.6, 1+1+0+0) won bronze.

The cold conditions slowed down the course considerably and Fleig said he was feeling the effects of his fifth race in six days.

"I'm very happy with my race today, of course two misses at the shooting range is not good but its OK for me," said the 29-year-old Fleig. "It was very hard on the track today because it was very cold and very slow. After the start I was warm for 200 metres and from that moment on I was cold and didn't get any warmer."

In the visually-impaired women's race, Clara Klug of Germany and her guide Martin Hartl (43:44.1, 0+0+0+0) were repeat winners, after capturing Wednesday's sprint. Klug's margin of victory was just 5.65 seconds. Oksana Shyshkova and guide Vitaliy Kazakov of Ukraine were a close second (44:08.8, 1+0+0+0) while Germans Johanna Recktenwald and guide Simon Schmidt (50:58.3, 0+0+0+0) won bronze.

Vitaliy Luk'yanenko and his guide Borys Babar (44:456.4, 0+0+0+0) celebrated their gold-medal win in the men's visually-impaired class, 10 seconds ahead of the Belarusian team of Yury Holub and guide Dzmitry Budzilovich (44:56.4, (1+2+0+0). Bronze went to Iaroslav and guide Kostiantyn Yaremenko of Ukraine (45:50.1, 1+1+0+0).

Today is a day of training and for many of the skiers a rest day. There are two remaining events - the relays on Saturday and the long-distance cross-country races Sunday.