The Para Biathlon World Cup is competed this weekend in Vuokatti. Thursday offered some exciting competitions in sprints as the athletes set to the start gate for the first time this season.

Men and women sitting classes kicked off the sprint day in Vuokatti. With perfect winter conditions, it was a double celebration for team China, which took the top spots in the 7,5 km sprint. Zixu Liu shot clean and secured first place ahead of Mengtao Liu. Third place went to Yerbol Khamitov from Kazakstan. In the women's sprint, the victory went to the United States and clean shooting Kendall Gretsch with exactly one minute ahead of German Anja Wickner, who had one miss. Korean Yunji Kim took third place also with one miss.

In standing men, Mark Arendz (CAN) did a perfect job at the shooting range and took the win ahead of Serhii Romaniuk (UKR) and Xiabin Liu (CHN). In the women's sprint, we also saw a clean shooting from the winner as Yujie Guo (CHN) hit all the targets and secured the first win of the season. Second place went to Ukrainian Liudmyla Liashenko who shot clean, and third place went to Natalie Wilkie (CAN) who missed two.

In vision-impaired men, it was a Ukrainian celebration as Oleksandr Kazik took the win despite one miss on the shooting range. Second place went to China's Shuang Yu with one miss, and third place to German Nico Messinger, who managed to shoot clean. In the women's sprint, Chinese Yue Wang missed one shot but kept a good speed on the tracks resulting in victory. Second and third places went to Germany for Leonie Maria Walter and Johanna Recktenwald.

Photos: Poikkimaki/Vuokattisport