COC: Korhonen and Skoglund secure victories

On the second competition day of the Continental Cup in Lillehammer (NOR), Minja Korhonen and Andreas Skoglund ended up on top of the podium.

As on Friday, Anne Häckel was in first place after the women’s Ski Jumping part. The German led with 91.5 m and 120.1 points, closely followed by Minja Korhonen from Finland, who reached the longest distance of the day with 92 m (119.2 pts) and was only 4 seconds behind the German.

At this point, Korhonen's teammate Heta Hirvonen took third place with 89.5m (112.1 pts), 32 seconds behind Häckel.

Korhonen, who had already won on Friday, again showed a strong performance on cross-country skis and left her competitiors far behind on the 5km course.

American Annika Malacinski fought her way up from 4th place after Ski Jumping and secured second place 46.3 seconds behind Korhonen.

Meanwhile, Hirvonen defended her third place and reached the finish 1:52.2 minutes after the winner.

With two victories, Korhonen now confidently keeps the lead in the overall standings of the COC.

SJ Results: Women IG HS98/5km – 9.12.23, Lillehammer
Overall Result: Women IG HS98/5km – 9.12.23, Lillehammer

Among the men, Kasper Moen Flatla was in the lead after Ski Jumping. The Norwegian reached the furthest distance of the day with 96.5 m and collected 121 points, which brought him the first place.

Simon Mach from Germany placed just 8 seconds behind Flatla with 91.5 m and a total of 119.1 points. Rank 3 was taken by Austrian Manuel Einkemmer with a jump on 92.5 m (119 pts), who also started the 10 km cross-country race 8 sec behind together with Mach and teammate Mario Seidl (93.5m, 118.9 pts) who came in 4th, due to the narrow point gaps.

The four leaders initially ran a good race at the front, but did not expect the strong competition that was coming from behind.

The previous day's winner Jakob Lange from Germany, who was in 6th place after Ski Jumping, was considered the clear favorite for another victory, but things were to turn out differently. With a brilliant catch-up race, Norwegian Aleksander Skoglund from 32nd place and Fabian Riessle from Germany from 29th place fought their way up into the leading group.

In an exciting sprint to the finish, Skoglund narrowly beat Lange (+0.4 sec) and took his first COC victory since 2020.

Riessle secured third place, 1.9 seconds behind his teammate Lange, who leads the overall standings after the first weekend of competition.

SJ Results: Men IG HS98/10km – 9.12.23, Lillehammer
Overall Result: Men IG HS98/10km – 9.12.23, Lillehammer