Beijing 2022, Day 4: Top stories, moments and records from the Paralympic Winter Games

Two more clean sweeps for Ukraine, their third of Beijing 2022

Day 4 of the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 saw six medal events take place in Para biathlon, with Para ice hockey deciders for the knockout stages and a continuation of the wheelchair curling round robin.

On International Women’s Day it was Ukraine’s women’s who completed Ukraine’s first 1-2-3 of the day, in the standing biathlon, the second clean sweep for the nation at the Games. Gold was won by Iryna Bui with silver claimed by Oleksandra Kononova to add to her previous seven-Paralympic winter medals, with bronze bagged by Liudmyla Liashenko.

Hours later, the Ukrainian men not only replicated that feat, in the visually impaired discipline, but went one further by claiming the top five places. Vitaliy Lukyanenko won the eighth Paralympic gold medal of his career, the 43-year-old becoming the most successful Para biathlete of all time with Anatolii Kovalevskyi and Dmytro Suiarko claiming the other two podium sports, winning silver and bronze, respectively, with Iaroslav Reshetynskyi just off the podium in fourth and Oleksandr Kazik fifth.

Liu Mengtao won the host's eighth gold medal of the Games after finish 47-seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Martin Fleig of Germany, in the men's sitting event, adding to his bronze from the sprint. Favourite Taras Rad came third following four shooting penalties.

Canada's Mark Arendz won his second Paralympic gold medal after upsetting Grygorii Vovchynskyi in the men's standing discipline. Alexandr Gerlits took the bronze to get Kazakhstan off the mark on the medal table.

People's Republic of China proceed to the Para ice-hockey finals without losing a match after beating Italy 6-0 on Tuesday (8 March). Canada made it straight through to the semi-finals after beating Republic of Korea by the same score. The Czech Republic take on great rivals, Slovakia, later in the day.

Wheelchair curling saw wins for Latvia, Great Britain, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Sweden and Norway, with additional matches being played later in the day.

Moment of the day

America’s Kendall Gretsch won a thrilling middle-distance race against compatriot Oksana Masters, the latter the favourite to take the title following her gold medal in the sprint event on Saturday (5 March). Despite being penalised for missing a shot at the shooting range, Gretsch overtook Masters after 7km of the 10km cross-country skiing, despite Masters being flawless on the targets.

"I'm so excited about today's race," Gretsch said post-race. "I'm so happy to be sharing the podium today with my teammate Oksana and Anya from Germany. We call her the 'Biathlon Queen' so it's fun to be on the medal stand with them."

It’s been quite the six months for Gretsch who claims a winter Paralympic medal six months after bagging Para triathlon gold in the summer Games at Tokyo 2020 (in 2021). Masters, meanwhile, adds to her quite considerable nine Paralympic Winter Games medals and she also has three Summer Games titles to her name, including two from Tokyo in Para cycling.

Athlete of the day

At just 18 years old, Leonie Maria Walter took gold in the women's middle distance vision impaired event to become the first German woman to win the discipline. The teenager beat Ukrainian favourite, Oksana Shyshkova, who bagged the sprint gold on Saturday (5 March). Shyshkova surprisingly missed two shots at the shooting range, which cost her the win. The pair were way ahead of the rest of the field with People’s Republic of China's Wang Yue coming in for the bronze medal.

"I am so happy," said Walter after the event, describing winning her first gold medal at a Paralympic Games as a "wonderful feeling". The teenager adds the gold to the two bronze medals she's already bagged at these Games in the Para biathlon 6km visually impaired and the 15km Para cross-country skiing classical discipline.

What to watch next

There is plenty more action to come at Beijing 2022 tomorrow (Wednesday 9 March), with Para cross-country skiing taking centre stage on the medal front. Medals will be available in six disciplines, with events being contested in men's and women's sprint sitting, sprint standing (free) and sprint vision-impaired (free). The Para ice hockey competition continues as does the wheelchair curling with a further 10 matches.

All medals of the day

Women’s events

Para Biathlon - Middle distance sitting

• Gold: Kendall Gretsch (USA)
• Silver: Oksana Masters (USA)
• Bronze: Anja Wicker (GER)

Para Biathlon – Middle distance standing

• Gold: Iryna Bui (UKR)
• Silver: Oleksandra Kononova (UKR)
• Bronze: Liudmyla Liashenko (UKR)

Para Biathlon – Middle distance visually impaired

• Gold: Leonie Maria Walter (GER)
• Silver: Oksana Shyshkova (UKR)
• Bronze: Wang Yue (CHN)

Men’s events

Para Biathlon – Middle distance sitting

• Gold: Liu Mengtao (CHN)
• Silver: Martin Fleig (GER)
• Bronze: Taras Rad (UKR)

Para Biathlon – Middle distance standing

• Gold: Mark Arendz (CAN)
• Silver: Grygorii Vovchynskyi (UKR)
• Bronze: Alexandr Gerlits (KAZ)

Para Biathlon – Middle distance visually impaired

• Gold: Vitaliy Lukyanenko (UKR)
• Silver: Anatolii Kovalevskyi (UKR)
• Bronze: Dmytro Suiarko (UKR)