January 31, 2015 (Cable, WI) – The USA’s Andrew Soule continued to race into the record books at the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin, USA, winning silver in the men’s middle distance cross-country sitting race on Saturday.

The medal was Soule’s second silver and fifth medal overall of the competition, a new record for a US skier at an IPC Nordic Skiing Worlds. Soule was understandably happy with the performance, crediting the past year of training to achieving his results on home soil. “Everything has come together with all of our plans,” said Soule.

Soule (Pearland, Texas), an Army veteran and 2010 Paralympic medalist, finished second behind Aleksandr Davidovich of Russia (27:45.3) while his compatriot Alexey Bychenok (28:18.9) took the bronze increasing his medal haul to five as well at the end of the individual events.

Canadian Paralympic champion, Chris Klebl of Canmore, Alta., scrapped his way into fifth spot for his best race at this year’s premiere international Para-Nordic event. Yves Bourque, of Becancour, Que., placed 16th.

Soule has won more medals at the championships than any other U.S. athlete in recent history. Prior to the world championships, Soule had never finished on the podium in an international cross-country race; however, Soule now owns three cross-country medals after finishing on the podium in the sprint, middle and long distance races. In total, Soule has won two bronze and three silver medals during the championships.

“It was a good fast course today; they’ve done a fantastic job grooming it out, and I was able to ski well,” Soule said. “It’s been just a beautiful event all around.”

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas) and Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) also grabbed top-10 finishes as they placed sixth and ninth, respectively. Other U.S. finishers in the sitting class included Sean Halstead (Rathdrum, Idaho) in 13th, Bryan Price (Belton, Missouri) in 15th and Augusto Perez (Syracuse, New York) in 17th.

American Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky), a three-time Paralympic medalist, won her second medal of the championships in an extremely competitive competition in the women’s sitting class where only 12 seconds separated the top-four women. Masters finished only five seconds behind gold-medalist Andrea Eskau of Germany. Norwegian Mariann Marthinsen (16:12.3) took bronze. Eleven-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Maryland) finished ninth.

“I am really happy with my performance today,” Masters said. “I keep thinking of where I could make up those five seconds [to have beaten Eskau], but I think I skied as fast as I could. I’m just trying to follow in my teammate’s footsteps and make my way to the podium.”

Eskau raced to some history of her own, taking gold to sweep the three cross country races, though she credited her competitors for pushing her. “It was close, all races, but in the end I have the luck to win,” she commented.

Canada’s Brittany Hudak, 21, had the cross-country ski race of her life in the women’s five-kilometre standing division for a career-best fourth. The rising young star, who represented Canada at the Sochi Games, finished just one second off the podium behind the 2014 Paralympic champion with a time of 17 minutes, 3.8 seconds.

“I go into these races not expecting anything but with an open mind, but getting the splits from the coaches along the way motivated me to push harder,” said Hudak. “The skis were great today, the technique felt so good too so I am really happy. It was such a close race.” Canada’s Para-Nordic rookie, Emily Weekes of North Vancouver, skied to 10th spot at 19:12.4.

Oleksandra Kononova, of the Ukraine, won the women’s standing race with a time of 15:53.0. Liudmyla Liashenko, also of the Ukraine, was second at 16:29.9. Sweden’s Helene Ripa edged out Hudak for the bronze to round out her individual competition with two medals. “This race was much more tougher for me,” Ripa said. “I had in my mind [Kononova] could be tired after all those races, but I still know that she’s very hard to beat.

Canada’s Mark Arendz saved his best for last clawing his way back into the medal mix after a difficult week finishing just 10 seconds off the podium pace in fourth with a time of 26:23.5 in the men’s standing 10-kilometre classic-ski race. American Omar Bermejo finished 21st.

“Today was a fantastic day. Over the past few years the coaches and I have put in a lot of time working on my classic so I was curious to see how I’d finish,” said Arendz. “I learned from what went wrong earlier in the week. The staff gave me an amazing pair of skis and I was able to climb everything. It feels incredible to have this race today.”

Russian Vladislav Lekomtcev (25:41.4) reclaimed the top spot on the podium in the men’s standing. Teammate Ruslan Minnegulov (25:56.2) won silver. Ukraine’s Ihor Reptyukh (26:13.2) claimed bronze to round out the podium.

In the men’s visually impaired Stanislav Chokhlaev (26:15.2), guided by Evgenii Fatkhullin, led the third straight Russian sweep of the podium. Nikolay Polukhin (26:47.4) and guide Andrey Tokarev took silver while the team of Vladimir Udaltcov (27:23.4), guided by Ruslan Bogachev, won bronze.

Speaking through a translator, Polukhin said he was happy for Chokhlaev, adding he felt that he “over-achieved” in the individual races. “I was planning to compete in biathlon events this week and was planning to do well in the middle distance,” Polukhin continued.

Russia retained the top spot in the women’s visually impaired as Elena Remizova (16:00.4), guided by Maksim Priogov, took gold ahead of compatriot Iuliia Budaleeva (16:25.3) and guide Tatiana Maltseva. Ukraine’s Oksana Shyshkova (17:40.3) and guide Lada Nesterenko held on for the bronze medal.

The competition concludes on Sunday (1 February) with the cross-country relays, which start at 10am (CST).

Live results will be available here.

A live stream will be shown here.