COC-M: Terzer with maiden victory in Rena

Austria’s Dominik Terzer has claimed his first Continental Cup victory in Rena on the past weekend. Terzer beat teammate Martin Fritz by one second. World Cup athlete Taylor Fletcher reached the third place, +3.7 seconds behind Terzer.

The jumping event was once more dominated by the Norwegian home team. This time, it was youngster Simen Kvarstad, who claimed his first-ever jumping victory on Continental Cup level. Harald Johnas Riiber, Andreas Skoglund and Simen Tiller completed a Norwegian “fantastic foursome” to lead the cross-country race. After a jump of 110 metres, Kvarstad had 13 seconds of advantage on Riiber, who in turn started two seconds ahead of Skoglund and nine ahead of Tiller. Martin Fritz and Dominik Terzer started from positions four and five, +0:26 and +0:33 seconds after the leader.

The race had the good jumpers Fritz and Terzer working hard to keep the fast approaching fast skiers of their back on the 10 kilometre-distance. Taylor Fletcher, Paul Gerstgraser and Truls Johansen stormed to the front from positions 19, 30 and 27 but were not able to fully reach the Austrian duo at the top anymore but the Norwegian group fell victim to the high speed.

In the end, Terzer had the stronger finish to claim the victory, while Taylor Fletcher would have needed the race to be a little longer to reach the top two. Gerstgraser finished on rank four, +13.5 seconds behind the winner but with the fastest time of 24:02.9. Johansen was fifth (+25.9), Riiber saved a sixth place, Saturday’s winner Joebstl reached a seventh place and the Top Ten were completed by Einar Luraas Oftebro, Tobias Simon and Hidefumi Denda.