Rehrl strikes again on Day 2 of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE
Jan 19, 2019·Nordic Combined
Franz-Josef Rehrl repeated yesterday’s win with a gala performance on the jumping hill and on the track today. An amazingly strong race had the Austrian crossing the finish line 24.3 seconds ahead of Akito Watabe, who out-sprinted Fabian Rießle for the second rank by 0.5 seconds. The German, in turn, edged Norway’s Espen Bjørnstad off the podium by 0.2 seconds.
Franz-Josef Rehrl had another fantastic jump ready for the competition on Day 2 of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE. 117.5 metres (145.8 p.) meant a secure pole position again. He started the 10 km race with a head start of 45 seconds on his closest pursuer, Yoshito Watabe. The Japanese showed 113.5 metres (134.6 p.) and climbed up in the TRIPLE rankings to the second position again.
He was followed by his brother Akito, who jumped to 112 metres (132.6 p.) and started his race with a delay of 53 seconds. Fabian Rießle showed no signs of letting up with a jump of 111.5 metres and ranked fourth before the start of the race. He started at the same time as Mario Seidl (AUT), a 54 second deficit on Rehrl. Yesterday’s second placed Espen Bjørnstad followed one second later at +0:55.
After a coach request, Jarl Riiber jumped from one gate lower (gate 14) but did only reach 111.5 metres, half a metre short of the 95% of hill size to obtain the compensations points, and had to start his race with a delay of one minute and 16 seconds. Terence Weber, Hideaki Nagai and Manuel Faißt completed the jumping Top Ten with starting times of +1:18, +1:21 and +1:31.
Franz-Josef Rehrl showed an amazing performance in the race that not many would have guessed was possible for the ski jumping prodigy. The blue bib bearer celebrated clear a start - finish victory and managed to keep a group of dedicated skiers off his back for the entirety of the race.
Even though Fabian Rießle, known as one of the strongest skiers of the field, tried his hardest to close the gap, Rehrl proved to be just too strong. Only in the last part of the last lap did Rehrl's advantage fall below the 30-second mark and to 24.3 seconds at the finish line. Rehrl now has only 2 jumps and a final 15 km of racing separating him from the TRIPLE trophy 2019.
The contestants for the podium ranks consisted of four athletes: Akito Watabe, Fabian Rießle, Espen Bjørnstad and Mario Seidl. Yellow bib bearer Jarl Riiber started his race fast and tried to close the gap to this group but ultimately paid the price and dropped back to to a second, larger pursuing group, which he managed to lead into the finish as sixth.
Akito Watabe skied a smart race by conserving energy behind Rießle and then out-sprinting him on the final stretch, a tactic that he often fell victim to in earlier years. Still, he almost felt sorry for Rießle and thanked him for his efforts leading him to the podium in the press conference following the race. Rießle still managed to stave off the challenge of yesterday’s podium finisher Espen Bjørnstad, who had to be satisfied with the fourth position today. Mario Seidl finished fifth. The rest of the Top Ten positions went to Jørgen Graabak, Terence Weber, Eric Frenzel and fastest skier Lukas Klapfer.
As tomorrow’s final event is only for the Top 30 athletes of the TRIPLE standings, 20 athletes will have to watch from the sidelines. Among them are Finland’s Leevi Mutri, local heros Maxime Laheurte and Laurent Muhlethaler, Switzerland’s Tim Hug, and jumping prodigies Szczepan Kupczak (POL) and Ernest Yahin (RUS).
