COC-M: Thomas Jöbstl with back-to-back victories
Aug 31, 2018·Nordic CombinedThomas Jöbstl continued in Rena as he stopped in Ruka: with a victory. The Austrian beat his teammate Bernhard Flaschberger by 0.7 seconds. Norwegian local hero Jens Luraas Oftebro captured rank three, +1.4 seconds behind the winner.
In the ski jumping part, Team Norway had dominated with four athletes on the first four positions: Harald Riiber won with 113.5 metres and 143.9 points, starting 34 seconds earlier than teammate Sindre Ure Soetvik. Youngster Simen Kvarstad was third with 108 metres (+0:52) and Simen Tiller had the intermediate fourth position with 112.5 metres.
Thomas Jöbstl started from the 13th position with a delay of one minute and 38 seconds. In the race, the 6th fastest time was enough for Jöbstl to stay with the top group around teammate Bernhard Flaschberger, who came storming from position 27 with the fastest cross-country time.
Also in the top group were World Cup athlete Taylor Fletcher and German Tobias Simon but in the sprint for the podium, the Austrians proved to be the strongest, as well as youngster Oftebro. Fletcher had to be content with the fourth position, Simon was fifth.