COC-M/L: Tagil wins for Geraghty-Moats and Lehnert
Mar 08, 2019·Nordic Combined
USA’s Tara Geraghty-Moats has extended her Continental Cup running streak with one more victory in Nizhny Tagil (RUS). After a very windy PCR on the previous day, Geraghty-Moats returned strong to set the winning ski jump of 85 metres and proceeded to set the level with the best cross-country time of 13:34.4 for the 5 km race as well. In the end, Geraghty-Moats victory was a demonstration with the 25-year-old finishing two minutes and 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Jenny Nowak from Germany.
Nowak, who had been struggling with a tough season herself impressed with a strong comeback on the cross-country track that had her improve her 78.5 metre sixth place from the jumping round to the final second position. Norwegian Junior World Championship silver medallist Gyda Westvold Hansen jumped to 81.5 metres and rank three in the jumping part of the event and manage to keep this position also in the race but not without giving Nowak a run for her money and the second place. In the end, only 0.6 seconds separated the two athletes.
Jumping sensation Lisa Hirner did not have her best jump in the competition round but improved position nine to the final fourth rank, +2:34.5 after the winner and also Anastasia Goncharova and Maria Gerboth finished in a bigger pursuing group at +2:36.8 and +2:37.0. The Top Ten were completed by Veronica Gianmoena, Olga Aristova, Svetlana Gladikova and Glafira Noskova
On the men’s side, Sindre Ure Søtvik set the winning jump once more by flying to 96 metres (118.6 p.). With a jump of 99 metres, the longest distance of the day, teammate Leif Torbjørn Næsvold followed Søtvik at a distance of only six seconds and strong German jumper Luis Lehnert also had a good try of 96 metres, the intermediate third position of the day and a time disadvantage of 10 seconds. Lars Ivar Skaarset, Hidefumi Denda and David Mach started their races +0:21, +0:23 and +0:28 behind the leader.
After the men’s 5 km race, it was Luis Lehnert, who prevailed and took his first-ever Continental Cup victory. Lehnert battled with Søtvik for the entirety of the race and then proceeded to outsprint the Norwegian by 1.2 seconds on the final stretch. Leif Torbjørn Næsvold was not able to match the other two athletes and finally reached the finish 5.8 seconds after the winner. Hidefumi Denda gained one place and finished fourth, Lars Ivar Skaarset was fifth, David Mach sixth and David Welde seventh. Jakob Lange, Go Sonehara and Dominik Terzer completed the Top Ten.
