Victories were other story.
There was 45-year-old Smithers, B.C., school teacher Jody Barber placing 10th in the women's threekilometre pursuit (standing). She's only been on skis for three years.
From the other end of the country and the age span came Springton, P.E.I.'s Mark Arendz. The face of the War Amps organization in television ads, he's 20 and now a face of the Paralympic program after a seventh-place finish men's three-km pursuit (standing).
And then there were the McKeevers, Brian, the cross country ski stud who also made the 2010 Canadian Olympic team and his guide, brother Robin. They reached the final in the men's three-km pursuit (visually impaired) despite battling the flu for the past week.
Six gold medals were handed out Saturday. Russia won three of them, Ukraine two and Germany one.
Ukraine's won gold from Vitaliy Lukyanenko with guide Volodymyr Ivanov in the three-km pursuit (visually impaired) and from Olena Iurkovska in women's 2.4-km pursuit (sitting). Russia won gold from Kirill Mikhaylov in the men's three-km pursuit (standing), Irek Zaripov in men's 2.4-km pursuit (sitting) and Anna Burmistrova in women's threekm pursuit (standing).
Para-alpine events delayed
Whistler / Fog, a persistent problem at Whistler Creekside throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics, wreaked havoc with the opening day of para-alpine skiing.
Men's and women's downhills were scheduled for Saturday in all categories -- visually impaired, sit ski and standing -- but after some early morning sunny breaks did allow the standing men to get in a required training, fog rolled in.
The racing was to have started at in the late morning, but several delays pushed the start time back.
By the middle of the afternoon, fog had covered most of the hill and it appeared very unlikely that racing would go at all, which was eventually confirmed by the Vancouver Organizing Committee.
It is a bad sign for organizers, with only one full off day on the alpine schedule to reschedule the events.
Super-G races are set to go in all categories today, but the weather forecast isn't good through Tuesday.
Canada had a realistic shot at four medals in the downhill, with visually impaired skiers Chris Williamson and Vivianne Forest and women's standing competitor Lauren Woolstencroft having dominated their categories on the World Cup circuit. The other medal possibility would have come in men's sit ski, where Josh Dueck of Vernon, B.C., is the reigning world champion.
With files from Gary Kingston
Source:edmontonjournal.com/
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