Hagen targets new record as Herola eyes first Lahti win

Norwegian star Ida Marie Hagen will have her sights on a new wins record as the women’s Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup breaks new ground in Lahti, Finland, this week.

The 25-year-old, who leads the overall standings by 215 points with only two individual events left, has already secured a second Crystal Globe - to add to her first in 2023-24 – after winning her maiden Seefeld ‘Triple’ on 1 February.

That victory, her 10^th from 12 events in a dominant season, also extended her record tally of individual World Cup wins to 27, having surpassed compatriot Gyda Westvold Hansen’s previous best of 23 in Oberhof, Germany, in January.

One more victory either this Friday, 6 March, in an individual Large Hill Gundersen, or in the finale to the World Cup season in Oslo, Norway, on 15 March, would see Hagen set a new benchmark of wins in a single season, having equalled Westvold Hansen’s record of 10 from 2022-23 in her last competition in Seefeld.

Only Austrian 17-year-old Katharina Gruber, in a Mass Start on the first women’s World Cup weekend of the season in Trondheim, and Alexa Brabec (USA), Hagen’s closest challenger this season who won a Mass Start in Seefeld, have denied the Norwegian victory.

This will be the first women’s Nordic Combined World Cup event in Lahti, the first in Finland and the first time they have competed on a Large Hill this season, following two successful competitions in Oslo at the end of last season.

Hagen warmed up for her return to the World Cup circuit by winning two Continental Cup events in Falun, Sweden, last weekend, with last season’s overall champion Nathalie Armbruster (GER) finishing second and third and Brabec claiming second in the Mass Start.   

Hagen has also already sealed this season's Compact Trophy and a record fourth Best Skier Trophy – a feat no man or woman has previously achieved. She previously held the record jointly with Finnish hero Ilkka Herola.

Herola eyes first win on home snow

Herola is another competitor with landmarks on his mind as he enters what could potentially be the final two weeks of his career.

The 30-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable last 12 months, starting with his maiden individual World Cup win in Oslo last March – on the same day Jarl Magnus Riiber (NOR) bowed out of the sport.

He followed that a week later with his first individual podium on home snow with second place in Lahti, where he had previously only had success in Team Sprint events alongside Eero Hirvonen (third in 2018, before a memorable win in 2019).

Herola began this season with a second individual podium on home snow, a third place in the opening Compact in Ruka.

But despite a consistent campaign in which he achieved seven more top-six World Cup finishes before the Winter Olympics, Ruka was Herola’s only podium appearance until Val di Fiemme, where he won his first Olympic medals at his fourth Games with individual Large Hill bronze and silver with Hirvonen (below) in the Team Sprint.

It was after that latter competition that Herola revealed he – and Hirvonen, also 30 – had both been contemplating whether this would be their final season, although Herola was reluctant to make a definitive decision until after the last competition of the season.

“I am sure it will not be an easy decision, so I need more time to think about it,” he said. “It is not about the competition. I couldn’t dream about anything better than competing when you are in good shape and can fight like this (for the podium) almost every week.

“But there are big sacrifices which have to made during the year and I have been making these sacrifices for 15 years already, so that is a consideration for me.”

If the prospect of further success is a factor in his decision, Herola’s memorable victory in the first Nordic Combined Ski Flying competition last Friday in Kulm, Austria – only his second individual World Cup win – was another welcome surprise.

“It is kind of unbelievable,” he said. “Whoever had said five years ago that I would win some day after we are jumping on the flying hill, I wouldn’t have believed it. I am quite wordless.”

Could Herola add another glorious chapter to a possible fairytale end to his career with a first individual win on home snow, 14 years after his World Cup debut in Lahti as a 16-year-old in March 2012?

Given his recent jumping form and the energy evident in his sprint finish to pip Johannes Lamparter (AUT) to cross-country victory in Kulm, you wouldn’t put it past the Finn.

Lamparter, with a 173-point lead in the overall standings over Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR) and only one more individual event to come in Oslo on 16 March, is poised to clinch his second Crystal Globe.

If he finishes 17^th (which would yield 28 points) or better in Friday's Gundersen, Lamparter, previously champion in 2022/23, will ensure he holds more than a 100-point lead heading to Oslo. The 24-year-old has yet to finish lower than seventh so far this season.

After Provisional Competition Rounds for the women (08:30 CET) and men (10:15 CET) on Thursday, both individual Gundersens will be held on Friday.

The women and men will come together on Saturday, 7 March, to compete in a Mixed Team Sprint, with one woman and one man on each team, and a maximum of two teams per nation. Each athlete will ski 6km in the cross-country, 4x1.5km laps each.

FIS NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP – LAHTI SCHEDULE (all times CET)

06.03.26

12:00 – Women’s Individual LH Gundersen SJ

13:00 – Men’s Individual LH Gundersen SJ

16:00 – Women’s Individual Gundersen CC 5km

16:40 – Men’s Individual Gundersen CC 10km

 07.03.26

10:15 – Mixed Team Sprint LH SJ

14:30 – Mixed Team Sprint CC