COC: Weber completes hat-trick, Tiller wins the 20/21 overall

Much like Tara Geraghty-Moats on the women’s side, Germany’s Terence Weber proved to be unbeatable at the FIS Continental Cup Finals in Nizhny Tagil and also took the victory in the 2-jump, 15 km Final Individual Gundersen event on Sunday.

The Germany crossed the finish line a clear 40.2 seconds ahead of closest pursuer Simen Tiller from Norway, who won the overall ranking. Julian Schmid, David Mach and Manuel Einkemmer fought for the third place with the best ending for Schmid, who claimed rank three by finishing +1:50.2 after his teammate Weber. David Mach was fourth (+1:53.2) and Einkemmer fifth (+1:56.0).

World Cup experienced Weber was the best ski jumper in the morning, even though only one jump was on his usual excellent level with 97.5 metres, while the other ended at 81.5 metres in tough wind conditions. Still, a total score of 222.4 points put Weber in the lead for the 15 km race with an advantage of 27 seconds on runner-up Simen Tiller.

Even though Weber is not known as the strongest cross-country skier, he held his own very well in the 15 km race and extended the advantage to 40.2 seconds with the seventh fastest time on the course. Tiller, who showed jumps of 88 and 93 metres was only the ninth-fastest athlete in the race but had a comfortable buffer of about 50 seconds on third-placed Lars Ivar Skaarset at the beginning of the race.

With Thomas Rettenegger, Manuel Einkemmer, Julian Schmid and David Mach, a group formed around the two-minute mark behind the leaders which consisted of some of the stronger cross-country skiers: with the third-, sixth and eight-fastest times, Mach, Schmid and Einkemmer left Skaarset behind who finished sixth and had only five seconds to spare to a fast-approaching Taylor Fletcher at the finish line.

With 35.09.01, Fletcher was by far the fastest man on the track but weak jumps of 72.5 and 80 metres had the American starting from position 18 with a delay of four minutes and 22 seconds. He finally claimed rank seven. Thomas Rettenegger, Fabio Obermeyr and Kasper Moen Flatla completed the Top Ten.

In the overall, Simen Tiller won with a comfortable lead: he collected 629 points in the season, compared to runner-up Skaarset’s 452. David Mach from Germany claimed rank three with 447 points, beating out Oberstdorf Team Sprint silver medallist Espen Andersen by 7 points for the position.

In the Nations Cup, Norway won with 3170 points, Germany was second with 2657 and Austria third, just three points behind Germany.

Final Results
Ski Jumping Results
Overall Standings
Nations Cup Standings