VUOKATTI, Finland -- Canadians Brian McKeever and Chris Klebl captured gold and silver medals, respectively, at the IPC World Cup final Saturday.
McKeever, a 10-time Paralympic gold medallist from Canmore, Alta., won the men's 20-kilometre visually impaired event in one hour 20 minutes 43 seconds with guide Graham Nishikawa of Whitehorse. It was McKeever's first para-nordic race of the season.
"It went really well today on a very typical marathon type course," said McKeever. "Graham and I were trading turns on the front to keep the pace up.
"The techs gave us some fast skis today and which allowed us to keep the pace all day."
Russia's Alexsander Artemov and his guide, Ilya Cherepanov, were second in 1:24:40.2. Thomas Clarion and Antoine Bollet of France were third in 1:25:00.5.
Klebl, also of Canmore, finished second in the men's 20-kilometre sit-skiing competition for his first IPC World Cup medal of the year. Ukraine's Maksym Yarovyi was first in 52:31.0 with Klebl second in 53:42.3. Korea's Eui Hyun Sin finished third in 53:43.0.
"Training has gone well since May which has included a few new experiments so I'm glad I was able to put things together when it mattered," said Klebl. "I had put in a solid block of training in Switzerland leading into this race.
"It has been a long year with few races. We had great skis and I'm happy to be able to deliver today."
Brittany Hudak, of Prince Albert, Sask., was the lone Canadian in the women's standing classification, finishing fifth in 1:46:10.9. Mark Arendz, of Hartsville, P.E.I., was eighth in the men's standing event in 1:26:31.2.
