Brian McKeever, left, looked effortless as he skied to yet more Paralympic glory ©Getty Images

Brian McKeever won an incredible 14th Paralympic gold medal after easing to victory in the men's long-distance vision impaired cross-country race at Beijing 2022, while there was also a third gold medal of the Games for Japan courtesy of Taiki Kawayoke.

McKeever, who has more than a quarter of Canada's all-time Winter Paralympic golds, finished the race's 20 kilometres after 55min 36.7sec to win at a canter.

He was followed across the line by the United States' Jake Adicoff, who had to settle for another silver medal.

The 26-year-old Californian finished as runner-up in the Pyeongchang 2018 middle-distance race.

Adicoff had been given an outside chance for the title after taking the 12.5km gold at the Lillehammer 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships.

However, he was simply unable to match McKeever's speed over the additional distance and finished 3:17.7 back at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre.

While others collapsed and tried to regain their breath in the finish area, the Calgary native shrugged his shoulders and laughed at the camera with guides Russell Kennedy and Graham Nishikawa.

Rounding out the podium was Sweden's Zebastian Modin in 1 hour 1min 34.4sec, dealing heartbreak to Finland's Inkki Inola.

Inola had produced a stunning improvement on his Pyeongchang 2018 performance where he finished 10th but missed out on the medals by 1:29 following Modin's powerful surge to the line late on.

Earlier on, Kawayoke joined Alpine skiers Momoka Muraoka and Taiki Morii as a Japanese Beijing 2022 Paralympics gold medallist.

The 2019 world champion pulled off an unexpected win after 52:52.8 to pip Chinese pair Cai Jiayun and Qiu Mingyang to the title.

Cai finished first and set a time of 54:27.7 which went unbeaten for 13 finishes until Kawayoke delivered the killer blow.

Qiu was just two seconds slower than Cai, which was still enough to knock pre-race favourite Mark Arendz of Canada off the podium.

In the women's events, Natalie Wilkie produced further success for Canada as she won the women's long-distance standing race after 48:04.8.

Natalie Wilkie now has two Paralympic gold medals as she also won the women's standing 7.5km event at Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images
Natalie Wilkie now has two Paralympic gold medals as she also won the women's standing 7.5km event at Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images

The 21-year-old found a significant improvement from her sixth-place finish in the event at Pyeongchang 2018 to take victory by almost a minute over the US' Sydney Peterson who clocked in after 49:00.2.

Wilkes' compatriot Brittany Hudak pocketed the bronze 27sec later following a fierce battle with China's Zhao Zhiqing over the 15km course.

"It's super special standing here in Zhangjiakou with the gold medal," said Wilkie.

"I know I raced well today, not just because I won the gold medal but because I paced my race very well."

Ukraine's Oksana Shyshkova was incredibly dominant in the women's long-distance vision impaired contest, cruising to gold in 51:09.01.

German duo Linn Kazmaier and Leonie Maria Walter completed the podium with times of 52:05.6 and 54:08.8, respectively.

There was a moment where Kazmaier looked like she could wrestle the lead away from Shyshkova but it was not to be.

Nevertheless, the teenage pair will still be happy with what are their first Paralympic medals.