Canadian Brian McKeever battled through challenging conditions Monday to win the men's visually impaired 20-km classic-ski race at the cross-country world championship in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

McKeever and his new guide, childhood friend Erik Carleton, powered through five cm of new snow and challenging winds to win the with a time of 53 minutes 26.7 seconds.

"We were behind after the second lap, but I wasn't too worried because I felt like I still had something left in the tank and our skis were running well," McKeever, 31, of Canmore, Alta., said.

McKeever took the lead on the third of four laps. Russia's Nikolay Polukhin and Andrey Tokarev won the silver while Russia's Alexei Toropov and Sergey Maksimov took the bronze.