Geraghty-Moats and Rehrl clinch first Oberhof victories
Aug 31, 2019·Nordic Combined
Tara Geraghty-Moats claimed another Summer Grand P'rix victory but today, the American had to fight for it. Starting a big catch up race with a delay of 44 seconds at the start, Geraghty-Moats finally turned the result her way and crossed the finish line 31.4 seconds ahead of closest adversary Stefaniya Nadymova. Jenny Nowak delighted the German crowd with a hard-fought third place, +49.5 after the winner.
Stefaniya Nadymova had a strong jump of 94 metres on the hill and took the pole position for the race with 103.4 points. Gyda Westvold Hansen (NOR) was the second woman out of the gate, seven seconds after Nadymova after jumping to 91 metres (101.7 p.). Teammate Thea Minyan Bjørseth was third with 92.5 metres (98.2 p) and started her race 21 seconds after Nadymova. Jenny Nowak kept the German flag flying on position four. A jump of 90.5 metres gave her 34 second to make up on the leader.
Summer Grand Prix leader Tara Geragthy-Moats only ranked seventh after the jumping event and had 44 seconds to make up at the start line after an 87.5 metre jump (92.4 p.). Fast skier Anastasia Goncharova struggled a little more on the hill and only ranked eleventh, with one minute and 53 seconds to make up in the 5 km cross-country race.
In the race, Geraghty-Moats started out strong and had made up the deficit on the leaders after one and a half of three rounds. She then proceeded to ski away from Stefaniya Nadymova who in turn managed very well to keep Gyda Westvold Hansen and the fast approaching local hero Jenny Nowak off her back. In the end, the victory and second places were undisputed, while Nowak managed to overtake Nowegian Westvold Hansen on the last big uphill and claim the third position.
Russia’s Anastasia Gocharova set the second-fastest time of the day to turn position eleven into rank five and the prize giving ceremony was completed by Veronica Gianmoena on position six.
Austria's Franz-Josef Rehrl has well and truly arrived among the world’s best Nordic Combined athletes. The Seefeld 2019 multi-medallist claimed his second win of the Summer Grand Prix 2019 in the Individual Gundersen event in Oberhof. In a start - finish victory, Rehrl crossed the finish line 27.7 seconds ahead of Akito Watabe. Italy’s Samuel Costa battled his way to his first Summer Grand Prix podium on rank three and finished +36.5 after Rehrl.
Franz-Josef Rehrl proved once more that he is in amazing jumping shape at the moment. The Mass Start winner from Klingenthal took the longest jump of the day to land at 137 metres. 135.1 points gave him a 15-second head start on closest pursuer and Summer Grand Prix overall rival Akito Watabe from Japan. Watabe showed 131.5 metres but achieved a point total of 131.4 points. Third up in the ranking list was Norwegian Leif Torbjørn Næsvold, who had been in the lead for large portions of the jumping round. Starting with bib number eight, the 21-year-old showed 134.5 metres and 128.5 points meant a delay of 26 seconds at the start.
Laurent Muhlethaler (FRA) was more than happy with his fourth place and started his race 50 seconds after the leader. Yoshito Watabe followed at + 1:01, Czech Republic’s Ondrej Pazout was sixth (+1:10), Samuel Costa and Vitalii Ivanov shared the seventh place (+1:34) and Austrian teammates and namesakes Lukas Klapfer and Greiderer closed out the Top Ten with starting times of +1:37 and +1:42. Julian Schmid was the best of the German team on rank 11 with a time behind of +1:43.
Rehrl was dominant in the 10 km race and managed to keep Akito Watabe constantly about 20 seconds away from the leading position. Even if Watabe and Leif Torbjørn Næsvold skied together for a stretch of the way in the mid-part of the race, Rehrl was untouchable at the front. On the fourth lap, Næsvold hat to let go of Watabe but the gap from the Japanese to the top did not get smaller. A big pursuing group had formed behind the three leaders and in the fifth lap, this group caught up with Næsevold. In the end, he finished on position 12.
The fight for the third position was on between fast skiers Vinzenz Geiger, Thomas Jöbstl, Fabian Rießle, Ilkka Herola and an in-form Samuel Costa, who prevailed in the end to claim his first-ever summer podium. Fabian Rießle got unlucky an fell in the last turn and ended his race on position 10. Teammate Vinzenz Geiger had more luck and finished fourth (+38.4), young Austrian Thomas Jöbstl captured a strong fifth position ahead of Yoshito Watabe, who was sixth.
