Riiber comes back strong and leads Norwegian double victory in Trondheim
Jan 26, 2019·Nordic Combined
Jarl Magnus Riiber had a great comeback to winning World Cup events on home soil in Trondheim. In the first of two competitions, the yellow bib bearer was actually uncharacteristically frustrated with his jumping performance but all frowns quickly turned to smiles after a superb cross-country performance which included shaking off red bib bearer Magnus Krog on the last uphill. Krog ended a long period of struggles with a stellar second place today, Veteran Willi Denifl from Austria claimed the third place.
Denifl used all of his experience to win the jumping round in difficult wind conditions. Strong head wind at the bottom of the hill had delayed the start of the round considerably and not all athletes were able to make peace with the conditions. Denifl, however, shone with a performance of 135.5 metres and claimed the pole position with 114.8 points and a head start of nine seconds on Russia’s Ernest Yahin, who showed 136.5 metres and 112.6 points today.
Local hero Espen Bjørnstad sailed to 134.5 metres, the intermediate third position. Behind him, two teammates and the top aspirants for the podium followed: even though overall World Cup leader Jarl Magnus Riiber was not at all happy with his jump of 132.5 metres (105.9 p.) and had a deficit of 36 seconds to make up, he was able to ski together with Bjørnstad (+0:34) and also fast skier Magnus Krog had a top jump of 130 m again and started his race with a delay of 45 seconds.
Akito Watabe was the next big name to follow from start position seven, with a delay of 54 seconds. Jumping sensation Franz-Josef Rehrl did not get his best jump today and landed at 131 metres already. He started his race with a disadvantage of one minute and eight seconds.
38-year-old Denifl knew better than to overpace at the beginning of the race. Staying true to his tempo, it still took until the halfway point of the race until the pursuing Norwegian duo Jarl Riiber and Magnus Krog had caught up with the Austrian. On the way, they had already overtaken Russia’s Yahin and also lost teammate Espen Bjørnstad, who, in spite of a promising position at the start, was not able to match his teammates high speed.
Denifl hung on to Krog and Riiber until the last big uphill had Riiber and Krog go head to head. The way that the yellow-bib bearer Riiber managed to get away from Krog, who is known as one of the strongest skiers of the field was impressive. Knowing that his chance had passed, Krog was content to let Riiber have his celebration with the adoring crowds on the final stretch and also enjoyed the ovations of the home crowd. Denifl’s third place was not in danger, as Japanese superstar Akito Watabe was not able to close the gap to the top athletes during the race. He finished fourth once more.
German Vinzenz Geiger skied from position 13 to five, beating our local hero Bjørnstad, who ended up on the sixth place. Manuel Faißt, Franz-Josef Rehrl, Philipp Orter and Jørgen Graabak completed the Top Ten.
