Brian McKeever finished over 44 seconds ahead of his rival from Russia, Nikoly Polukhin to clinche the GOLD medal - Canada's first of these Paraolympic Games and the first ever on Canadian soil.
"That was a lot of fun. It meant a lot. That was the one we were waiting to win and that's the one we really wanted," Brian McKeever said today after finishing the four laps of the red 5km course for a total of 20kms.
Not a large crowd, but a loud crowd overwhelmed Brian so much so, he couldn't hear brother Robin's directions in the final 100m's. They were here to witness history as the duo crossed the finish line in the top time of the day. The weather was gorgeous - sunny - enough to need those trade-mark shades over long side-burns: "McKeever look"... started off at zero, rising to +5 at the end of the race.
Men's 20 km Free, Visually Impaired
| Rank | Start Order | Country | Name | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | Canada | McKEEVER Brian | 51:14.7 |
| 2 | 11 | Russian Federation | POLUKHIN Nikolay | 51:55.6 |
| 3 | 14 | Belarus | SHAPTSIABOI Vasili | 52:22.5 |
Canada had two entries in the Men's Visually Impaired category with Ottawa's Alexei Novikov finishing in 13th place just over 17 minutes behind McKeever. Jody Barber came in 6th in the Standing category, Robbi Weldon in 5th and Margarita Gorbounova 7th in the Women's Visually Impaired races.
A rest day at WOP tomorrow...no wonder Dirk said he was heading up the mountain. It is meant to rain tomorrow, but this won't be the case above 1000m's - beautiful fresh powder skiing. Dirk mentioned to me that the Village was quite busy, even busier than during the Olympics. March Break is on in Ontario, thus most likely across North America and ski fans are finally flying west to see for them selves what all the excitement is about.
March 17th will see Biathlon long distance racing at WOP. In long-distance biathlon, competitors ski the loop five times and stop four times at the shooting range. Missing a target plate can be costly: for every miss, a competitor receives a one minute time penalty that is added to their overall skiing time.
I'm off to Toronto for the annual Sportsman Show, so won't be able to update my blog until I return Friday...cheers, Claudia
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