SOCHI, February 19, (ITAR-TASS) - On Wednesday, Russian athletes hope for medals in biathlon, cross country and in snowboard competitions. Men will play hockey against Finland.

On Wednesday, the Russian men’s hockey team will play against the Finnish team, which lost to Canada only in the added time.

In the morning, at 09:15 and later at 14:31 men and women will compete for medals in snowboard. After the victory of Nikolai Olynin in snowboard-cross the Russian fans expect high results in women’s parallel giant slalom, where four years earlier Ekaterina Ilyukhina won the silver medal at the Games in Vancouver.

The men’s giant parallel slalom will feature Stanislav Detkov, who was the fourth in Vancouver, and Viktor Vaild, Andrei Sobolev and Velery Kolegov.

Another competition will begin at 13:15 - men’s and women’s team sprint classic. Here, the men’s team will feature Maxim Vylegzhanin and Nikita Krukov, the women’s team - Anastasiya Dotsenko and Yulia Ivanova. Vylegzhanin in Sochi already has won a silver medal and once was very close to a medal.

A mixed relay in biathlon will begin at 18:30, where the Russian team will present Olga Zaitseva, Olga Vilukhina, Evgeny Garanichev and Anton Shipulin. Garanichev and Vilukhina are medal winners in Sochi, thus the Russian team has high chances for a high ranking.

Ladies’ short programme in figure skating will begin at 19:00. All hopes are for Yulia Lipnitskaya. Another Russian figure skater - Adelina Sotnikova - will also compete for a medal.