Andreas Ilves & Annemarii Bendi take Estonian summer titles
Oct 26, 2020·Nordic Combined
In the absence of older brother Kristjan, Andreas Ilves has won the men’s title at the Estonian summer national championships in Otepää this weekend. Annemarii Bendi claimed the title in the women’s victory, while Markus Kägu and Sten-Jörgen Leis were crowned champions in the Junior and U-16 categories.
The jumping competitions were joint events of the women and U-16 men, as well as the junior and senior men. In the women’s and u-16 men’s event, Bendi was the best jumper by far, jumping 84 metres and claimed 94 points, which gave her a 48-second lead on runner-up Sten-Jörgen Leis and one minute and 8 seconds on retired Triinu Hausenberg, who made a comeback for the national championships.
In the men’s jumping event, Ilves claimed the pole position for the race with a jump of 92.5 metres (115 p.). He had a two-second head start on junior Marku Kägu (92 m, 114.5 p.) and also in the men’s field some names of retired athletes appeared again: Karl-August Tiirma and Han Hendrik Piho ranked third and fourth with jumps of 87 and 87.5 metres.
In the cross-country runs, Bendi and Leis claimed undisputed victories: Bendi won with the fastest running time of 17:25 and beat Hausenberg by two minutes and 44 seconds. Carena Roomets was third, +4:30. Leis was the only athlete in the U-16 category to start in the race.
Also Kägu’s and Ilves’s victories were clear affairs: Kägu only needed the second-fastest running time to cross the finish line one minute and 25 seconds ahead of Karel Rammo and Robert Toompuu finished four minutes and 36 seconds after Kägu in the Junior category.
Ilves was one minute and 53 seconds faster than Piho in the men’s category, while Tiirmaa finished two minutes and 15 seconds after the winner.
