Final Weekend at WOP

Saturday was Relay Day for Cross Country - Women did 3 x 2.5kms and the Men 1 4km + 2 x 5km course. Russia dominated the Gold, Ukraine the Silver and Norway hit bronze in the Men, with Belarus in the Women.

The final night of grooming started at 1am. That was because it was supposed to snow. Snow never came - instead rain all night and all day...making for a dreary long last day at WOP. And of course the courses needed loads of salting this morning to harden the tracks for the final day - Sprint races. Sit skiers skied an 800m course. Standing skiers skied the 1.2km course (the Women's Sprint course from 2009). The turn-around corner was a bit sketchy, so Dirk and a second machine worked for over 2 hours to build up a 2m high wall to severely bank the corner.

Lo Lanning - head marshal # 2 has been great in keeping us up-to-date on marshal TRACKSIDE for the Paralympics. Here's her story from today: "The Russians owned the podium, that's for sure. The Mckeever fellas were rather spectacular as well.....doubled poled the whole thing practically and rumour has it he wore skate skis!...passed his brother early on right after leaving the stadium and charged right through ahead of Robin to the finish. They had 30 seconds to make up on the first starter, and made quick work of that, in the lead before the turn around, I believe! Our marshal team ran like clockwork today...smooth as butta! eventhough the weather could have been betta...it was a long day....Start at 10 quarterfinals lasted right til noon,...then semis ...then finals and THEN MEDAL ceremony...ao...ao...ao....ao....ao....times 6....Finally got to wrap up at 3pm! Phew! And did I mention rain ! "

And medal, the Canadian brother team did. The Vancouver Sun reported the following:

McKeever made a calculated gamble in the final of the sprint event. Racing in rain and sticky snow conditions, they decided not to wax their skis and instead used pure strength to power their way to victory.

"The tracks were slowing down because they were getting wet," Brian McKeever said. "That was part of what made the decision. "We had a good strategy. We had to make the decision and believe in it 100 per cent."

McKeever came into the Paralympics with an objective to win three gold.

Mission accomplished.

"That was the goal coming in," said the 30-year-old. "It was not one we wanted to put out to people. You can never predict what the other competitors would do. "We had to put down our best races to do it. We tried to play to our strengths."

McKeever's victory Sunday at Whistler Olympic park, which he secured alongside his guide, brother Robin, marks Canada's 10th gold medal of the 2010 Games and is McKeever's ninth career Paralympic medal.