Russia secures two more clean sweeps on golden day in Slovakia

Having already secured two clean sweeps so far in the games, Russia doubled its tally with two more on Wednesday, adding golds and bronzes in both the women's 10km Biathlon pursuit and the women's 5km Cross-Country Skiing classic.

At Osrblie, Russia's male biathletes set the tone for another peerless day with Yuri Shopin taking the gold medal in the 12.5km pursuit ahead of compatriots Iaroslav Ivanov and Maksim Burtasov - less than 24 hours after the same three men featured on the podium of the men's 10km sprint.

Shopin, third in the sprint, shot without error to upgrade his bronze to a gold, finishing in a time of 30:25.5, 1.5 seconds quicker than Ivanov, who added a silver medal to his sprint gold. Burtasov, silver in the sprint, secured bronze in the pursuit by crossing the line 17.6 seconds slower than Shopin.

"Today the results were different from yesterday," said Shopin. "We changed the discipline and the shooting was clear for me. This is a great result for my career and I am very happy."

Shopin came from behind to overtake a fatigued Ivanov, who had led at each check point before missing one target on the fourth and final shoot. "I had a lead but it was not enough," Ivanov said. "But I am happy because this is another big success for Russia, like yesterday."

In the women's 10km pursuit, Evgeniia Pavlova was ahead at every check to set the winning time of 30:45.1 despite missing one target on the third and fourth shoots. Slovakia's Paulina Failkova missed three targets but showed consistency on her skis as she secured the silver medal, 38.2 seconds down on Pavlova.

A second Russian, Kristina Smirnova, finished strongly after recovering from missing two targets on the second shoot, crossing the line 1:45.8 down but over a minute ahead of fourth-place Anna Kistanova of Kazakhstan.

Fialkova's silver medal for the host nation saw the 22-year-old from Brezno complete a full house of medals in the games, having already secured gold and bronze medals in previous events. "The silver medal was my target so that I could complete my collection. I knew the skiing was not suited to my strengths and so I was content to settle for second place," she said.

At Štrbské Pleso, Russia's cross-country skiers emulated their biathlete peers by snaring all three positions on the podium later in the day. Victory in the men's 10km classic - by just 0.8 seconds - went to Andrey Feller, with Artem Nikolaev narrowly missing out on the gold. Third place went to Valeriy Gontar, who crossed the line 10.1 seconds down on Feller.

"The race was full of strong opponents and I made sure I stuck with the fastest ones which helped me take the victory in the quickest time," said 27-year-old Feller, a bronze medallist from the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino.

Despite a slow start, Feller, a student at the Siberian Federal University, completed the 10km race in a time of 23:29.2. A further three Russian athletes finished in the top eight, with only Japan's Hiroyuki Miyazawa (fourth) and Yevgeniy Velichko (sixth) breaking Russian's firm grip on the event.

In the women's 5km classic, Russia's Oxana Usatova set the golden standard over the undulating course with a time of 13:09.5 to deny Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Slonova by 18.1 seconds. Recovering from a very slow start, Russia's Lilia Vasilieva did enough to snare the bronze medal, 21.9 seconds down on her winning compatriot.

"The last kilometre was quite critical but I found enough energy to put in a last kick and take the win," said Usatova, for whom victory was all the sweeter for after the 26-year-old student from the University of Omsk was overlooked by her country in the mixed team sprint competition.

"The competition was strong today - especially from my colleagues from Russia. I was a bit disappointed not being selected for the team sprint but the gold medal has made up for that setback," she said.

Russia still leads the overall standings in the 2015 Winter Universiade with a huge haul of 27 medals, including eight gold, nine silver and 10 bronze. The nearest opponents are Kazakhstan (2/1/0), Poland (1/1/1) and Slovakia (1/1/1).

Thursday's programme at Štrbské Pleso features the the Nordic Combined mass start 10km cross-country race and ski jumping HS 100 events, plus the Ski Jumping team women's HS 100 event.