Jarl Magnus Riiber has to sprint for second TRIPLE trophy
Jan 31, 2021·Nordic Combined
In one of the tighest Nordic Combined TRIPLEs ever, Jarl Magnus Riiber had to fight off Ilkka Herola and Akito Watabe on the way to his second TRIPLE victory in Seefeld. Even though he went into the final race with a big advantage, Herola and Watabe caught Riiber and the final decision was made in a finish line sprint, which Riiber won by 1.3 seconds. Herola took rank two, Watabe finished 3.2 seconds after Riiber to take the third position.
For the final jumping round, Seefeld finally showed its sunny side and the majority of athletes was very satisfied with their jumps. Only six jumps did not pass the 100 metre mark with the majority of them happening in a period in which the wind turned to light tail wind for the Top Ten.
Jarl Magnus Riiber still persevered and showed 108 metres, even though the landing was not quite perfect. Akito Watabe had the cleaner jump but only reached 105 metres and so 38 seconds separated the two athletes at the start line. Ilkka Herola had a fantastic jump of 105 metres as well but did not manage to put a telemark landing in and lost valuable seconds in the process. He was still a threat with a delay of one minute and eight seconds at the start line.
Of yesterday’s four pursuing athletes, Johannes Lamparter brought himself in the best position with a jump of 104 metres. He had to make up one minute and 25 seconds in the race. Eric Frenzel and Vinzenz Geiger started their race at the same time at +1:54 and were a duo to watch since Frenzel is a force to be reckoned with on the 15 km distance and Geiger one of the strongest skiers of the field. Fabian Rießle followed 10 seconds later.
The best jump of the day was actually set by Laurent Mühlethaler who showed fantastic 110.5 metres and would have won the jumping round without his -33.1 TRIPLE points from the previous days. He had a delay of two minutes and eight seconds at the start.
Both Riiber and Watabe began the race at their own pace. For Riiber, this meant he was maintaining his comfortable lead and for Watabe that he was caught by a fast-approaching Ilkka Herola short after the 3.6 km point of the race. The Finn looked a lot better on the track than yesterday and together, the duo proceeded to shave off seconds of Riiber’s lead.
By the 10 km point, it became clear that Riiber was in danger and would not be able to maintain his lead over the two pursuers as it had melted ton 13 seconds only. On the following lap, Riiber was caught and it was clear that it would come down to who had the most energy left at the very end of the 15 km.
Riiber took the lead of the trio and kept the speed down and then set an attack early on the last uphill into the stadium, which the tired Herola and Watabe could not fully match. He therefore gained the two, three metres of advantage which took the heat out of the finish line sprint. He was able to chose the middle lane and Herola and Watabe just followed him, knowing that had nothing left in the tanks to match the Norwegian in the end. Still, the TRIPLE 20/21 was decided by 1.3 and 3.2 seconds in the end.
The fast German train, consisting of Geiger, Rießle and 15 km master Frenzel, were trying their utmost to close the gap to the front but Herola had been skiing away too fast, so that it was only local hero Johannes Lamparter who they were able to catch in the end. Lamparter skied with the group and but ultimately it was Frenzel and Geiger who were sprinting for the fourth place. Veteran and Seefeld-legend Frenzel had the better end on his loved 15 km distance and beat Geiger by 0.1 second, +47.7 after the winner.
Lamparter finished sixth, Fabian Rießle was seventh. Jørgen Graabak was the fastest man on the track once more and improved from position
