Riiber has to work hard for victory in Ruka
Nov 27, 2020·Nordic Combined
Jarl Magnus Riiber was not able to rely on his customary head start today but conquered his next victory in an impressive battle with newly-emerging Austrian shooting star Johannes Lamparter. In the end, Riiber’s experience had him finishing one second ahead of Lamparter who put up a real fight and claimed his first-ever podium position. Jens Lurås Oftebro claimed yet another third place after occupying the podium in Ruka in every event last year. He finished +17.3 seconds after his teammate.
In the jumping round, Lamparter impressed with strong ski jumping and the 19-year-old claimed the pole position with 147.5 metres, the same distance that Manuel Faißt showed in the PCR the day before. With 158.8 points, Lamparter lead the field by eleven seconds.
Estonia’s Kristjan Ilves also confirmed his great progress on the jumping hill with 144 metres (156 p.). Young Japanese Ryota Yamamoto was third with 142.5 metres and 152.9 points. He started his race 24 seconds after Lamparter. World Cup dominator Jarl Magnus Riiber was only fourth with 141 metres (150.7 p.) and had to make up 32 seconds on the cross-country track.
As chances to make up time are of course significantly reduced in a 5 km race, it was maybe only the first few athletes who had a realistic change to fight for the podium. Manuel Faißt started his race at +0:43, Mario Seidl, who returned after a 1.5 year absence due to knee injuries had to make up a deficit of +0:45, Jens Lurås Oftebro +0:47 and Akito Watabe +0:52.
As usual in the 5 km, the race was a fast-paced affair in which all athletes went full throttle in the hopes of advancing their position in the 12-minute race. Lamparter skied confidently at the top of the field, while Riiber had closed the gap to Ryota Yamamoto and Kristjan Ilves by the 2.5 km point.
The then left the two other athletes behind the close the 14-second gap that was left to Lamparter and overtook the young Austrian on the last long uphill into the stadium. The 19-year-old fought tooth and nail but had to concede defeat to Riiber. Kristjan Ilves tried to hang on to a podium result but by the intermediate time at 3.6 km, he had dropped back to +16.2 seconds after the leader and wasn’t able to uphold the speed while skiing alone. He was overtaken by Jens Lurås Oftebro and Manuel Faißt and finally claimed position five.
The rest of the Top Ten ranks went to Akito Watabe, Mario Seidl, Ryota Yamamoto, Fabian Rießle and Jørgen Graabak.
