OPA: Pazout, Vallet and Nowak win in Seefeld

Czech Ondrej Pazout, France’s Edgar Vallet and Jenny Nowak from Germany were the winners of the first winter OPA Alpencup weekend in Seefeld, Austria.

Nowak proved to be the strongest Nordic Combined lady on both days, beating Austria’s Lisa Hirner by 14.2 seconds and teammate Sophia Maurus by one minute and eight seconds on Saturday and reaching the finish line 30.7 seconds earlier than Maurus and 45.6 seconds before Hirner on Sunday. Nowak laid the foundation for her success with two jumping victories, giving her head starts of four and 27 seconds.

Nowak had the second-fastest time on the track on both days. Out of the 18 starters, only teammate Sophia Maurus managed to beat her on the skinny skis. In the end, Nowak proved to be non-stoppable, however and now leads the overall standings with 460 point ahead of Maurus with 300 and Italian Lena Prinoth with 274 points.

On the men’s side, Saturday’s 10 km event went to Czech Ondrej Pazout, who narrowly beat Austria’s Florian Dagn by 1.5 seconds and teammate Jan Vytrval by 2.6 seconds. Manuel Einkemmer from Austria had taken the lead after the jumping part but only finished fifth.

On Sunday, Einkemmer had to concede defeat to Frenchman Edgar Vallet in the 5 km event but at least conquered a podium position after starting from position nine and with a delay of 36 seconds. Vallet was second after the jumping part but overtook jumping winner Gasper Brecl from Slovenia, who finished third in the end.

After a successful summer, Germany’s Justin Moczarski still leads the overall standings with 302 points, Edgar Vallet is now second with 265 points, Manuel Einkemmer rose to the third position with 238 points.