Frenzel combines to victory in Val di Fiemme again

There is no beating Eric Frenzel these days! The 28-year-old claimed his sixth season victory on the final day in Val di Fiemme. Teammate Johannes Rydzek set another strong second place, recovering from position 16 after the jumping event. He arrived at the finish with a delay of 30.2 seconds. Japan’s Akito Watabe returned to the podium with position three. He finished 33 seconds behind Frenzel.

Frenzel astonished with his jumping skills in the morning in Val di Fiemme once again. He sailed to incredible 138 metres and even if the distance made it difficult to set a proper landing, he was still in the lead with a total of 141.1 points and 18 seconds on Japan’s Go Yamamoto. The young Japanese performs on an incredible level in the jumping hill as well, especially given the fact that he had a crash in the Qualification Round on Thursday. Japanese team leader Akito Watabe landed at a distance of 129 metres and with 133.5 points, this meant a 30 second time disadvantage for the start of the cross-country race.

Norwegian Jarl Riiber, who returned to competing today, had a fantastic jump as well but was disqualified due to a suit rule infraction. All of the strong German competitors were back on start today but at the intermediate point of the event, they had serious competition from Team Norway. Veteran Björn Kircheisen ranked sixth with one minute and three seconds to make up but was closely followed by Magnus Krog at one minute and four seconds. Another fast duo consisting of Olympic Champion Jørgen Graabak and Fabian Rießle had formed around the one minute and 17 second mark, while Johannes Rydzek followed at one minute and 26 seconds.

Eric Frenzel’s cross-country race was nothing short of a demonstration of his incredible level of performance. The German skied his race and his advantage on the pursuers Akito Watabe and Mario Seidl never got smaller than 40 seconds. Just in the end, when Johannes Rydzek, who had stayed with a bigger pursuing group behind the Japanese and Austrian, accelerated his speed and Frenzel finished his race at a celebratory pace, the gap melted to 30 seconds at the finish line.

Out of the seven athletes battling for the remaining two podium positions on the last lap, the two strongest ones proved to be Rydzek, who is skiing in a stellar shape of his own but struggles slightly on the jumping hill, and Watabe, who fought tooth and nail to finally return to the podium after a third place in Ruka at the beginning of the season.

Jørgen Graabak, Fabian Rießle, Mario Seidl, Eero Hirvonen and Björn Kircheisen had to be satisfied with positions four to eight. Mikko Kokslien skied an amazing race and improved from position 32 to a final tenth rank with the fastest skiing time of 25:58.2.