Italy claims maiden Mixed Team event win
Aug 24, 2019·Nordic Combined
The first-ever victory in a Nordic Combined Mixed Team event went to Italy. An intensely exciting and entertaining competition had Samuel Costa, Veronica Gianmoena, Annika Sieff and Alessandro Pittin take the win ahead of Team Norway I (Magnus Krog, Gyda Westvold Hansen, Marte Leinan Lund, Harald Riiber). Team Russia (Ernest Yahin, Stefaniya Nadimova, Anastasia Gocharova and Vitalii Ivanov) took the third place.
The Austrian team I proved to be the best in an exciting round of jumping. Lead by jumping prodigy Franz-Josef Rehrl with 101 metres and 120 points, Philip Orter, Annalena Slamik and Lisa Hirner collected an average of 97.7 points for their group which translated into the pole position for the race.
Just 19 seconds behind Austria, team Italy took up their race, after Pittin, Sieff, Gianmoena and Costa showed a very even performance of 92.9 in average with the four athletes jumping to 93, 92.5, 95.5 and 93.5 metres. Stefaniya Nadymova was Russia’s breakout star on the jumping hill, delivering strong 100 metres, only one of four athletes to do so. Together with Yahin, Goncharova and Ivanov, Russia collected an average of 89.6 points which meant a start 32 seconds behind Austria.
Team Austria II followed at +0:36 seconds and Germany I with local heroes Eric Frenzel and Jenny Nowak just one second later at +0:37. The by far longest jump of the day, however, went to Norwegian Gyda Westvold Hansen, who had already won two special ski jumping Continental Cups earlier this year. Westvold Hansen flew to an amazing 108.5 metres, which would have been a new hill record if the 17-year-old had been able to land the jump. With her crash, which luckily ended without any major injuries, the teams average came down to 87.6 points. They started their race at +0:40.
The race was an a riveting catch-up chase that saw the teams from Russia, Italy and Norway battling for the victory. Intermediate leaders Austria started strong with Franz-Josef Rehrl maintaining their lead on the first 5 km and exchanging to Annalena Slamik with an eight-second advantage on Italy. Samuel Costa, who set the fastest lap time of all men with 12:21.0 sent off Veronica Gianmoena, who immediately started gaining ground on Slamik. For the Norwegian team which had advanced to the third position, Gyda Westvold Hansen took up the race +29.2 after the leaders, followed by Russia at +44.9 and Austria II with +46.9 seconds to catch up on their teammates.
On the first women’s leg, Gianmoena captured the lead for her team but exchanged to Annika Sieff with an advantage of only one second on Westvold Hansen, who passed the baton to Marte Leinan Lund. Stefaniya Nadymova had set a blistering pace of 7:57.3 for the 2.5 km and sent her even faster teammate Anastasia Gocharova into the race with 5.3 seconds to make up on the leaders. Austria I had been relegated to the fourth position, +8.2 seconds after the leaders.
The second leg of the female athletes had Russia shooting to the lead after Anastasia Goncharova set the fastest time of any woman with 7:39.3. She gave her teammate Vitalii Ivanov a lead of +32.8 seconds when he headed out on the last leg of the race. He, however was chased by Harald Riiber and fast Italian Alessandro Pittin (+35.5).
In the end, Ivanov was no match for the famed fast skier Pittin and so it was Team Italy who crossed the finish line first. Behind Pittin, Harald Riiber had skied a courageous race and clinched the second place for Norway I, finishing 9.6 seconds after the winners. Russia salvaged the third place, (+24.1). Ranks four to six went to Austria I and Germany II and I.
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