COC-M: Næsvold leads quadruple win for Norway in Ruka
Jan 11, 2019·Nordic Combined
Norway took a quadruple win in the first competition of Continental Cup Ruka.
Leif Torbjørn Næsvold took the first place before Harald Johnas Riiber and Sindre Ure Søtvik. Simen Tiller perfected the Norwegian day as he crossed the finish line fourth.
The ski jumping competition round had to be cancelled due to difficult wind conditions and yesterday’s PCR results were used. The Norwegians also dominated the PCR and occupied the top five positions of the race with Sinde Ure Søtvik jumping to 134 metres and the jumping win. He started the race 10 seconds ahead of Næsvold, who showed 134.5 metres (118.5 p.).
Third was Simen Kvarstad after a jump of 128 metres and Harald Riiber was fourth with 122.5 metres on rank five and Simen Tiller completed the Norwegian group on rank five. For Kvarstad, Riiber and Tiller, the gaps to the leader were already quite substantial with 45 seconds, one minute4 and 24 and one minute and 26 second delays at the start line.
Søtvik and Naesvold and they skied the first three laps together before Naesvold accelerated to race for the win. Harald Riiber put in a great effort to catch and overtake Søtvik in the end as well and finished in second place, finishing 26.7 seconds after Næsvold.
Søtvik, who finally crossed the finish line 31.8 seconds after Næsvold was happy with his podium place but felt that Ruka is a very difficult place to compete for him.
The first non-Norwegian in the ranking was Germany’s Julian Schmid on rank five and also Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto overtook Simen Kvarstad in the end to finish sixth. Austrian Bernhard Flaschberger was the fastest man on the track and finished in a time of 26:08.8, improving from position18 to eight. Germany’s David Welde and USA’s Jared Shumate completed the Top Ten.
The Continental Cup continues in Ruka tomorrow with a Team Event.
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