Norway rule supreme and defend Team Event title
Feb 28, 2021·Nordic Combined
Team Norway had another perfect day on the jumping hill and cross-country tracks of Oberstdorf and celebrated a clear victory in the Team Event. The title defenders claimed the win with a clear advantage of 42.7 seconds ahead of the local heroes from Germany. Terence Weber, Fabian Rießle, Eric Frenzel and Vinzenz Geiger collected the first Nordic Combined medal for the host nation with silver.
As in Seefeld, Austria claimed bronze after a valiant fight. Last skier Lukas Greiderer closed the gap to six seconds at the finish line but was not able to endanger Vinzenz Geiger in the end.
Austria jumped to the lead with riveting performances of all four athletes and was the only team in which all athletes passed the 100 m mark. Mario Seidl and Lukas Greiderer delighted their teammates with efforts of 106 and 108 metres and in total, the team reached 527.8 points and took a lead of 25 seconds on Team Germany.
The host nation had shown steady but not great jumps until legend Eric Frenzel proved again that as soon as medals are on the line, he is one to be watched. He jumped 107 metres and together with 98, 99.5 and 98 metres of his teammates, the Germans collected 508.8 points.
Team Japan was third but especially Hideaki Nagai and Yoshito Watabe did not show their best jumps (97.5 and 96 metres) and so the Asian quartet had to contend with a start delay of 30 second on leader Austria after totalling at 505.8 points.
The title defenders from Norway suffered from an only average jump of Jarl Magnus Riiber to 100 metres, even though individual bronze medallist Jens Lurås Oftebro kept them in striking distance with 104 metres and a final point total of 501.5 points and 35 seconds of delay at the start.
Finland was fifth after good jumping performances for a young team (+1:30) and was followed by France in sixth (+1:54), Italy on position seven (+2:15) the Czech Republic on rank eight (+2:26) and the USA in ninth (+2:50). The teams from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan were between four and seven minutes after the leaders.
Team Norway showed a flawless performance on the cross-country track, even if their jumping result hadn’t been perfect. Espen Bjørnstad, normally a stronger jumper impressed with two fast laps on the first leg of the race. 10:23.8 was the absolute best time of any skier in the race and brought Team Norway past Team Japan on the last uphill of the second lap. Even though Austria was still 25.7 second ahead after an almost equally strong performance by Johannes Lamparter, Terence Weber was not able to match Bjørnstad and Akito Watabe and Team Germany dropped back to +40.6 seconds at the first exchange.
Jørgen Graabak, Fabian Rießle and Lukas Klapfer faced off on the second leg of the race. Graabak proved again that he is one of the best cross-country skiers of the field and caught the leader Klapfer on his first lap. Until the second exchange, that advantage had grown to 13.6 second for Team Norway. Predictably, Fabian Rießle overtook Hideaki Nagai behind the leading duo and so Germany was back on bronze medal course in the third leg of the race.
Here Eric Frenzel delighted the home fans with stunning cross-country skiing, set the best time of his leg of the race and overtook Mario Seidl on the first of his two laps. He then proceeded to chase Jens Lurås Oftebro but Friday’s bronze medallist would not be denied. He exchanged to Jarl Magnus Riiber with an advantage of 32.2 seconds - and the freshly minted World Champion and World Cup overall leader cruised home to take the win 42.7 seconds ahead of Vinzenz Geiger.
Geiger in turn had to fight to keep a Lukas Greiderer in full battle mode off his back. About 20 seconds separated the teams at the beginning of the last leg and Greiderer came within six seconds of Geiger in the end. Still, the German prevailed and won the first Nordic Combined medal for the host country.
The team from Japan dropped back to +2:13.4 but defended the fourth place against Finland (+2:38.7). France was sixth (+2:54.4), Italy seventh (+3:25.4), the Czech Republic eighth (+4:21.3) and the USA and RSF completed the Top Ten.
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