FIS Youth Cup with historical first overall winners

Jenny Nowak (GER), Annmarii Bendi (EST), Jan Andersen (GER) and David Zemek (CZE) have one thing in common: they are the first-ever overall FIS Youth Cup winners in Nordic Combined. Nowak and Bendi have the additional honour of being the first overall ladies winners in Nordic Combined in the history of the discipline. The FIS Youth Cup consisted of eight competitions at the four venues of Vuokatti (FIN), Oberstdorf (GER), Harrachov (CZE) and Trondheim (NOR).

The victories of the day went to Jenny Nowak (Youth I Girls), Hanna Midtsundstad (Youth II Girls), Sebastian Østvold (Youth I Boys) and David Zemek (Youth II Boys) which catapulted all four winners up in the overall result lists.

Jenny Nowak dominated the Youth I events pretty much everywhere. Six victories and two second places in eight competitions put her on par with the successful German World Cup team in this season and gave her a dominant victory with 760 points over runner-up Triinu Hausenberg from Estonia (445 p.). Norway’s Gyda Westvold Hansen took the third place with 363 points.

The fight was closer in the Youth II category of the ladies with Estonia’s Annmarii Bendi taking the title with a point total of 439 points. Bendi finished her season with the eighth place today. Runner up Sophia Maurus had a great weekend in Trondheim with two second places and scored a point total of 385 in the end. Third was Hanna Midtsundstad, who celebrated back-to-back victories in Trondheim and reached 320 points in total.

Even though sidelined with an ACL injury, Germany’s Jan Andersen was not to be stopped in the Boys’ Youth I category. With three victories, two second and one third place, Andersen accumulated 520 points and survived the charging Waltteri Karhumaa from Finland, who was not able to catch up enough points on the last weekend: 70 points separated the two in the end. Estonia’s Markkus Alter came in third with 381 points.

Czech David Zemek made his overall victory perfect with a second place and a victory in Trondheim: 470 points were in his account in the end, while runner-up Otto Niittykoski from Finland only had 372 to show for. Estonia also conquered the third place in this category with Andreas Ilves (214 p.).

In total, 191 athletes from 16 nations scored points in the past Youth Cup season. For the upcoming summer and winter, further Youth Cup are planned, as well as the introduction of a Continental Cup series for Nordic Combined ladies.