Germany on top of things in a dramatic 4x 5km Team Event
Jan 25, 2019·Nordic Combined
After the tight 5km Individual Gundersen event on Wednesday, also the 4x5km Team Event promised to become an exciting race already after the jumping round. Once again it was the athletes from Germany, Norway and Austria, who were able to convince with jumps on a very high level.
Inspired by Julian Schmid’s gold medal two days ago, Germany’s Luis Lehnert brought his team to the front with a very good jump on 93.5 metres after the first group. With a jump on 93 metres, Simon Hüttel was able to enlarge Germany’s advantage, followed very closely by Norway’s Aleksander Skoglund. The third group however, was dominated by Andreas Skoglund, who landed the longest jump of the day, 95 metres. The three medal winners from Wednesday Schmid, Oftebro and Lamparter were also the measure of all things in the last group, with Schmid being able to secure Germany’s first place, followed closely by Norway only 13 seconds behind and Austria 25 seconds behind.
Already the first athlete of team Norway Aleksander Skoglund was able to take over the lead from Germany’s Luis Lehnert, followed by Florian Dagn, who was not quite able to catch up with the other two athletes. However, Austria’s Max Teeling could close the gap again and was able to bring his team in the lead.
Lamparter and Oftebro were able to ski together in the third group, both of them pushing really hard, turning the race into a very dramatic one. Oftebro, who recently had been sick for two weeks, could not really keep up with Lamparter anymore and all of sudden Finland and France were also in the game for the podium.
With Austria in the lead, Germany second and Norway on third, exciting last 5km were about to begin. While Germany’s Julian Schmid was able to catch up with Marc Luis Rainer from Austria rather easily, Norway, Finland and France were fighting for rank three. After his first lap Finland’s Wille Karhumaa was not able to keep up the high speed and had to let other athletes pass him again.
Unexperienced Matteo Baud from France could also not keep up with Norway’s Andreas Skoglund, who was pushing hard and could even pass by Austria’s Rainer at the finish line. In the end Germany celebrated a clear victory ahead of Norway and Austria.
