Norway defends title in Mixed Team thriller
Feb 12, 2021·Nordic Combined
Already the ski jumping leg of the Mixed Team event was a super close affair. The teams from Norway and Austria were fighting for the top position in all four groups. While it was Austria’s Stefan Rettenegger, who showed the strongest jump of the first group and also the longest jump of the day (95.0m), the Norwegian women Marte Leinan Lund (90.5m) and Gyda Westvold Hansen (94.0m) were both slightly ahead of their opponents from Austria, what brought Norway on rank number one. So it was all up to Manuel Einkemmer and Andreas Skoglund. While Einkemmer showed the best jump of his group (92.5m), Skoglund was not 100% satisfied with his jump to 93.0m. Altogether the Norwegian team was first after jumping (113.0p.), but Austria followed just one second behind (112.7p.). Third place went to the Japanese team (103.5p, +38 seconds).
Right from the start the cross-country race was super intense. While Eidar Johan Stroem, the first athlete of the Norwegian team managed to stay together with strong cross-country skier Manuel Einkemmer on his first lap, the Austrian was able to put a few seconds between himself and the Norwegian on the second lap (+20.5 seconds). Einkemmer then passed over to Lisa Hirner, who secured the Austrian advantage on her lap against Marte Leinan Lund (+21.8 seconds). Gyda Westvold Hansen, who went on the track as the third athlete for Norway wasn’t only able to close the gap, but also took over the lead ahead of Sigrun Kleinrath (+2.2 seconds), So just like in the jumping part it was all up to the fourth athlete of the team. This time it was Andreas Skoglund and Stefan Rettenegger, fighting against each other on the course. In previous races both of them had shown that they are strong cross-country skiers, so the ending was totally open. Both of them gave it all on their two laps, staying together until the very last uphill, but in the end it was Norwegian Skoglund, who secured the win for his team. Behind these two teams it was also a very exciting race. Japan, Italy and Germany pretty much skied together until the second exchange. Then it was the Japanese team, who had to let go of the others. Italy and Germany fought against each other throughout the race. In the end it was Germany’s Tristan Sommerfeldt and Italy’s Domenico Mariotti, going together onto the finish line, where the Italian turned up the pace and was able to beat the German, celebrating the bronze medal together with his teammates Iacopo Bortolas, Annika Sieff and Daniela Dejori (+52.0 seconds).
Japan (+1:40.6 minutes) and the United States of America (+3:08.7 minutes) completed the top six. The fastest cross-country time overall went to team Germany (41:28.7 minutes).
