COC-M: Flaschberger best in Nizhny Tagil Mass Start

Bernhard Flaschberger finished on the top step of the podium in today’s Mass Start event in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. The Austrian was second after the initial cross-country race and cleared the 10 km track in a time of 24:47. A jump of 82 metres (94.4 points) was enough to claim the victory with a total point score of 213.6 points.

Hugo Bufard was the fastest athlete on the track with a time of 24:44 and claimed 120 points for the ski jumping part. Buffard formed a leading group together with Flaschberger and Gerstgraser, as well as yesterday’s winner Lukas Runggaldier until the Frenchman and Flaschberger dropped the two other skiers on the last lap. Gerstgraser and Runggaldier finished third and fourth, the rest of the Top Ten spots were taken by Lars Burås, Aguri Shimizu, Wille Karhumaa, Stephen Schumann, Tobias Simon and Thomas Jöbstl.

In the final ski jumping round, Flaschberger and also teammate Gerstgraser found decent jumps to remain on top of the result lists, while several of the good ski jumpers made up massive amounts of ground: Ernest Yahin broke into the podium with a jump of 99 metres, coming from position 28 after the race. For the Russian, this was the first podium position of his career. Japan’s Go Sonehara showed 94.5 metres, which catapulted him to position four coming from rank 27.

Tobias Simon had the third best jump with 96.5 metres, race winner Hugo Buffard ended up on position seven. The Top Ten were completed by Hidefumi Denda, Laurent Muhlethaler and Aguri Shimizu. COC leader Thomas Jöbstl ended up on position 14.