American veteran Oksana Masters eased to the Para biathlon women's sprint sitting top poldium on Saturday, and Shan Yilin, 20, grabbed the silver, the first-ever Paralympic medal in the event for China, in her Paralympic debut.

At the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center, the 32-year-old Masters, the event's silver medalist at PyeongChang 2018, finished the 6km course in 20 minutes and 51.2 seconds with 100 percent accuracy in two prone shootings.

"It is so special that it is the first gold medal for me as I played in Sochi and PyeongChang. It is incredible," Masters said.

"Dream comes true," she added.

Shan, 15.1 seconds behind Masters, also did not miss a single shot.

"I am very happy and excited to get a medal on home snow," said Shan. "I did well in shooting today. But there is still room for me to improve in skiing."

"I will try my best in the upcoming competitions," she noted.

Masters' teammate Kendall Gretsch, the defending champion, finished third, 1:01.7 adrift of the winner. Although Gretsch skied faster than Shan, she missed one shot for a one-minute penalty.

Gretsch and Masters had been considered the hot favorites for the gold medal.

Four years ago, Gretsch shocked Masters to win the sprint at PyeongChang 2018. After that, both stars won gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, in triathlon and cycling road respectively.

Para biathlon made its Paralympic Games debut at Innsbruck 1988, and medal events for women were introduced at the Lillehammer 1994 Games.

As in 2018, Beijing 2022 features 18 Para biathlon events for men and women.

Chinese athletes have competed at every Paralympic Winter Games since Salt Lake City 2002, although the nation did not field biathletes until 2018.

At PyeongChang 2018, two Chinese women and three men competed across sitting and standing events. Wu Junbao and Chu Beibei finished eighth in the men's 7.5km standing and women's 6km sitting respectively. 

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