Speed ​​World Champion Aline Roche won this Saturday (28), the bronze medal in the seated cross-country middle-distance (10km) event, at the World Paralympic Nordic Skiing Championships in Östersund, Sweden. Gold went to American Kendall Gretsch, who closed the individual competition with five golds in six contests.

It was the first time that the middle distance test was run with the same distance for both genders. It was also the debut of Elena Sena, Guilherme Cruz Rocha and Wesley dos Santos in this competition. At the last World Cup, Cristian was eighth and Aline 5th.

Aline remained in contention for the podium throughout, keeping a good advantage over Germany’s Andrea Eskau, who emerged as the biggest contender for bronze. With ease, the Brazilian set a time two seconds behind Eskau. Compared to Gretsch, Rocha was two seconds faster and one second slower than silver Anja Wicker, also from Germany.

Elena Sena was in sixth place, with a time 12 seconds above first place.

Cristian repeated last year’s result and was in eighth place, closing the race in 31 minutes and 38 seconds. Guilherme was the 16th and Wesley the 19th. Gold went to Italian Giuseppe Romele, silver to Canadian Colin Cameron and bronze to Ukrainian Taras Rad.

Brazil currently counts in the competition with four medals, one gold and three bronze. Aline’s title in the sprint, her two medals in the middle and distance, plus Cristian’s bronze in the sprint. This Sunday. the country will still participate in the relay event.

Look how amazing it is!! 🤩

Brazil is the only country with 4 medals in the #session at the World Para Ski Cross Country!! 🇧🇷 🎿

There were: 3 medals from Aline 🥉🥇 🥉 and 1 medal from Cristian 🥉#CBDN #BrasilNaNeve #World #Ostersund #SkiCrossCountry #ParaSkiCrossCountry #ski

— Brazilian Snow Sports Confederation (@brasilnaneve) January 28, 2023