Ukraine top Paralympic medal table on day one

Ukraine topped the medal table with three golds on the first day of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

Biathlete Grygorii Vovchynskyi triumphed in the men’s sprint standing event to win Ukraine’s first gold at these Games.

Oksana Shyshkova then won the women’s sprint vision impaired, before Vitaliy Lukianenko led a Ukrainian one-two-three in the men’s event.

Ukrainian athletes claimed seven medals in total on the opening day.

There are 20 Ukrainian athletes and nine guides in Beijing.

The delegation travelled to China despite the Russian invasion of their country, which began on 24 February.

Vovchynskyi, who won gold in the long distance event in Sochi in 2014, beat Germany’s Marco Maier by 45.8 seconds to win his event.

Shyshkova held off Germany’s Linn Kazmaier to claim Ukraine’s second gold.

Lukianenko added a third in the men’s sprint vision impaired event, with compatriots Oleksandr Kazik and Dmytro Suiarko claiming silver and bronze respectively.

There were also silvers for Liudmyla Liashenko and Taras Rad.

Liashenko, 28, won her fifth Games medal in the women’s sprint standing where China’s Guo Yujie, 17, emerged victorious.

The Russian Paralympic Committee and Belarus were banned from competing.