Large hill events on schedule in second WSC week
Mar 03, 2021·Nordic Combined
The competition activity in Oberstdorf has moved to the HS 137 large hill for the second week and for Nordic Combined, one more Individual Gundersen event and one Team Sprint are still on schedule.
In both events, the German home team are the title defenders with Eric Frenzel holding the title in the Individual and together with Fabian Rießle in the Team Sprint.
The silver and bronze medal will have to find new owners as 2019 silver medallist Jan Schmid has since retired and bronze medallist Franz-Josef Rehrl is sidelined with an ACL injury this season. In the Team Sprint, Schmid started together with Riiber in 2019 to claim silver and Rehrl and Gruber teamed up to take bronze and so, only Jarl Magnus Riiber will get a new chance at a Team Sprint medal. Bernhard Gruber officially pulled the plug on a long and successful career on Sunday.
For both events, Nordic Combined legend Frenzel keeps pushing the boundaries on records and high-achievements: He has won a record seven gold medals at FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, one more than Johannes Rydzek (6) and, incredibly, has won at least one gold medal in each FIS Nordic World Ski Championships since 2011. Another win would indicate his sixth world championships with at least one gold medal. No other man has won gold at more than three different FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.
In the Team Sprint, Frenzel is the only individual to have won four world championship medals in this event, teaming with Tino Edelmann in 2013, with Johannes Rydzek in 2015 and 2017 and with Fabian Rießle in 2019. With a win, Frenzel would surpass Jason Lamy Chappuis (2) for most world titles in this event.
Yamamoto rules training, Watabe, Lamparter and Riiber among favourites
In the training, Frenzel did not fully warm up to the large hill yet but showed steady improvements with ranks 34, 22 and 13 on training day one and ranks 12 and 13 on day two.
Surprisingly, also World Cup leader and normal hill World Cup champion Jarl Magnus Riiber was not on top of his game on the first training with ranks 20, 6 and 10. On the second training day, Riiber was more back to his old self with ranks four, three and two but Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto continued to reign supreme in all five training rounds he participated in.
Also Austria’s Johannes Lamparter was strong with ranks four, two and two on day one and rank two and one in two training jumps on Wednesday and has to be counted among the large hill favourites, same as Akito Watabe who was fifth, ninth and third on training day 1 and improved to second and fourth on day two.
The programme
Thursday, 4th of March
10:00 Trial Round HS 137 Men
11:00 Ind. Gundersen Competition Round HS 137 Men
15:15 Ind. Gundersen 10 km cross-country race Men
Saturday, 6th of March
09:00 Trial Round HS 137 Men’s Team Sprint
10:15 Team Sprint Competition Round HS 137
15:00 Team Sprint 2x 7.5 km cross-country race
Quick Facts
HILL
Schattenbergschanze
HS 137
TRACK
Cross-Country Stadium Ried
Red Course
2.5 km loop
Total climb: 91 m
Maximum climb: 33 m
Height Difference: 40 m
Sprint Course
1.5 km loop
Total climb: 47 m
Maximum climb: 26 m
Height Difference: 27 m
Seefeld 2019 podiums:
IG LH Men
1. Eric Frenzel (GER), 2. Jan Schmid (NOR), 3. Franz-Josef Rehrl (AUT)
TS LH Men
1. Frenzel/Rießle (GER), 2. Schmid/Riiber (NOR), 3. Rehrl/Gruber (AUT)
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