Brian McKeever victorious in Finland

VUOKATTI, Finland – Canada’s Brian McKeever continued his unbeaten run in the vision impaired cross-country short race on the second day of competition at the Nordic skiing World Cup on Thursday. 

The Canadian took revenge on Sweden’s Zebastian Modin for Wednesday’s middle distance defeat to claim gold.

Modin and guide Jerry Ahrlin had to settle for second after their opening day win, while Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kazik and guide Sergiy Kucheryaviy took the bronze.

Thirteen-time Paralympic champion McKeever – who along with guide Graham Nishikawa has never lost a 5km race – is satisfied with his World Cup so far.

“For this time of year I think the form is OK,’’ he said.  ‘’It’s hard to judge with jet lag but it’s getting better each day which I think that is important. Today was a more clear idea of what we’ve been doing so I’m happy with that,” he said.

After two days of competition Canada has three medals. Besides McKeever’s two podium finishes, Mark Arendz took gold in the standing middle distance cross country race on Wednesday.