Mario Seidl starts campaign for SGP 2018 victory
Oct 02, 2018·Nordic Combined
Current Summer Grand Prix leader Mario Seidl has started his bid to win the series this summer promisingly. The Austrian won the PCR on Planica’s large hill with a jump of 127 metres. 134.7 points total were enough to put Seidl on top of the result lists, while his closest adversary, Ilkka Herola struggled with his PCR jump and only ranked 23rd (111 m; 102.8 p, +2:06).
Second in the ranking of the day was Frenchman Maxime Laheurte who showed 128.5 metres (128.1 p.) and Seidl’s teammate David Pommer claimed the third position with 123 metres (123.1 p.). If the PCR has to be used in case of bad wind conditions on the upcoming weekend, this result would mean a delay of 26 seconds for Laheurte and 46 seconds for Pommer.
Behind the first three, the field was tightly packed. Austrian Martin Fritz ended up with a delay of 47 seconds on rank four, while eleventh-placed Go Sonehara (JPN) would start 59 seconds after Seidl. Next to veterans Jan Schmid and Francois Braud, a number of talented youngsters also entered this top group, among them Johannes Lamparter (AUT) and Simen Kvarstad (NOR).
World Cup athletes Espen Andersen, Tim Hug, Laurent Muhlethaler and Antoine Gerard were placed in the middle of the field (12th, 14th, 17th and 18th), while Taylor Fletcher, Raffaele Buzzi, Lukas Runggaldier and Bernhard Flaschberger struggled a bit more on positions 33, 35, 39 and 42.
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