By Nick Butler

Norway's Mariann Marthinsen celebrates the second of her two gold medals in Canmore ©Dan Patterson/IPCDecember 10 - Norway's Mariann Marthinsen won her second cross country skiing gold medal as she led opposition to Russian domination on the second day of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup in Canmore.


After winning in the middle distance event on the opening day of the season opener in Canada, the 29-year old sit skier earned a second victory in the women's sprint classic event.

She beat Italian Francesca Porcellato into second place while Russia's Svetlana Konovalova placed third.

After first being a prolific swimmer, whose major medals included a gold at the 2009 short course World Championships, she made a successful switch to the winter disciplines in time for Vancouver 2010.

Behind the Norweigan two other former summer athletes from the United States continued their transitions with ex-rower Oksana Masters finishing in fourth place, while wheelchair racing superstar Tatyana McFadden continued her remarkable year in seventh. 

As well as winning six gold medals at the IPC World Athletics Championships, McFadden also became the first person in history to win a marathon grand slam of victories winning Boston, London, Chicago and New York City. 

Elsewhere at the Canmore Nordic Centre, built for the 1988 Calgary Olympics,, it was more of the same for next March's Winter Paralympic hosts as three reigning world cross country champions - Mikhalina Lysova, Roman Petushkov and Vladislav Lekomtcev - all claimed victory.

Russia on way to another victory courtesy of Vladislav Lekomtcev at the IPC Skiing World Cup ©Pam Doyle/IPCRussia on way to another victory courtesy of Vladislav Lekomtcev at the IPC Skiing World Cup ©Pam Doyle/IPC


In his first race of the week Vladislav Lekomtcev held off Finland's Ilkka Tuomisto to win the men's standing class sprint race.

Lysova, meanwhile, won in the middle distance visually impaired event in which earlier this year she picked up her second world title at the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Solleftea, Sweden.

Along with guide Alexey Ivanov the 21-year old held off teammates Elena Remizova and Iulia Budaleeva in a Russian clean sweep.

After finishing in a disappointing seventh place on day one, Petushkov then returned to form with a dominant victory in the sitting class sprint event. 

In another Russian sweep Irek Zaripov finished second while the gold medalist on day one in the middle distance sitting race, Grigory Murygin, had to be content with bronze this time around. 

With officials seen chasing deer off the trail with sit-skiers fast approaching, the rest of the field had more than just dominant Russians to content with and, given the animals, France's fifth place Romaine Rosique commented that "it was a bit like skiing in a zoo today".

There was yet more dominance as Oleg Ponomarev won the men's visually impaired race, while Alena Kaufman took her second title of the week in the standing class. 

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