Brian McKeever has been named as the IPC's best male athlete of March ©Getty Images

Canadian cross-country skier Brian McKeever has won the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) Best Male Athlete of March award with the women's shortlist now released.

The IPC's monthly prize, sponsored by Allianz, has been split into male, female and team categories for March due to the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Paralympic Games taking place.

McKeever became the most successful Paralympic cross-country skier in history after his hat-trick of successes at the South Korean Games.

The visually impaired athlete won the 20 kilometres freestyle, 10km classic and 1.5km sprint in his category.

He has now won 13 Paralympic gold medals in all, as well as two silver and two bronze.

The 38-year-old received 42 per cent of the public vote in a poll on the IPC's website to be named the winner.

Four other athletes were in the frame - American Para-ice hockey player Declan Farmer, Swiss Alpine skier Theo Gmur, Japanese snowboarder Gurimu Narita and Chinese wheelchair curling skip Haitao Wang.

Five more athletes have been nominated for the women's prize today, including Russian Nordic skier Ekaterina Rumyantseva.

She was forced to compete as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete in Pyeongchang as the IPC has not yet lifted its doping suspension of her country.

It did not impact her performance as she won three golds and two silvers in women's standing events.

Neutral Russian Ekaterina Rumyantseva is among the contenders for the women's award ©Getty Images
Neutral Russian Ekaterina Rumyantseva is among the contenders for the women's award ©Getty Images

Two other Nordic skiers have been nominated, Oksana Masters of the United States and Germany's Andrea Eskau.

Masters overcame an elbow injury to win medals in all five of her events, including a pair of golds.

Forty-seven-year-old Eskau collected six medals in seven events, including double gold in the 10km and 12.5km sitting biathlon.

Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee is also shortlisted after a superb comeback from cancer treatment and two surgeries which took place just six months before the Games.

She won two gold medals in the banked slalom and snowboard cross SB-LL2.

The shortlist is completed by Slovakian Alpine skier Henrieta Farkasova.

She ended Pyeongchang 2018 as the most decoarated athlete with four gold medals and one silver.

Nominations are compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and International Federations.

The poll for the women's winner will be online here until April 16.