OPA-M: Fabio Obermeyr and Ozbej Jelen win in Planica
Feb 10, 2020·Nordic Combined
Austrian Fabio Obermeyr and local hero Ozbej Jelen (SLO) were the two winners of the OPA Alpencup competitions in Planica, which had to be moved from Kranj (SLO).
With Rok Jelen and Uros Vrbek, two local heroes used their intimate knowledge of the jumping hill on Saturday and jumped to the lead by showing 103 and 100.5 metres, the longest jumps of the day on the HS 100 normal hill that hosted the event. With 130 points, Jelen lead the pack by 22 seconds, followed by his teammate, who had a six-second advantage on third-placed Jan Andersen (GER).
Fast skier Fabio Obermeyr held the sixth position at the start line and had to contend with a disadvantage of 48 seconds on the leaders. With the fastest time of the 10 km race, Obermeyr catapulted himself to the top spot on the podium after racing for 24:49.9. He brought with him the fourth-ranked Domenico Mariotti from Italy, who had only the sixth-fastest time but surpassed Vrbek and Rok Jelen on the track to take rank two, +14.6 behind the winner.
A fast foursome fought for the remaining podium position and in the end, it was Slovenia’s Ozbej Jelen, who finished first, +30.6 seconds after the winner. He beat out France’s Mael Tyrode by 0.5 seconds, Germany’s Luis Lehnert by 0.9 seconds and Lehnert’s teammate Nick Siegemund by 1.2 seconds in a finish line sprint.
The remaining Top Ten spots out of the 55 athletes on start went to Fabian Hafner (AUT), Severin Reiter (AUT), Christian Frank (GER) and Iacopo Bartolas (ITA).
Ski Jumping Results
Final Results
On the second competition day, it was local hero Ozbej Jelen’s time to shine. With a 99 metre jump (122 p.) to the pole position, the Slovanian had a four-second lead on Austria’s Fabian Hafner (98.5 m; 121 p.), Germany’s Simon Mach (98.5 m, 121 p.) and teammate Uros Vrbek (99 m, 121 p), who all shared the second rank.
In the 5 km race, the stronger ski jumpers fared better and so Ozbej Jelen was able to control the race from the top and finish 1.9 seconds earlier than runner-up Domenico Mariotti, who had started from position five with a delay of six seconds. Fabian Hafner lost one position on the track but still finished third, 5 seconds behind Jelen.
A tight result had the entire Top Ten finish within 23 seconds of each other. Rok Jelen was fourth, Luis Lehnert fifth, Mael Tyrode sixth and the previous day’s winner, Fabio Obermeyr seventh. Obermeyr had the fastest time of the day once again but was only able to half his 44-second delay at the start line to 20.2 seconds at the finish line.
Jan Simek (CZE), Samuel Lev (AUT) and Jan Andersen (GER) completed the Top Ten.
