Lisa Hirner and Akito Watabe win PCR in Oberwiesenthal

For the first time, two PCR winners were crowed in the Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix and it was Austria’s Lisa Hirner and Akito Watabe who took the honours on the first competition day in Oberwiesenthal.

Alpencup winner Lisa Hirner showed a convincing performance in all three jumps today and won the PCR round with a distance of 96.5 metres. A point total of 117 points would give her a 14-second head start on runner-up Jenny Nowak. The local hero jumped 94.5 metres and achieved 113.5 points.

Should the PCR have to be used on the weekend, last winter’s Continental Cup overall winner Stefaniya Nadymova would start from rank three and have to catch up 42 seconds on the 5 km course after a 92-metres jump (106.5 p.). USA’s Tara Geraghty-Moats was the only other athlete to stay within a one-minute delay at the start line with 89 metres and 56 seconds to make up.

On the men’s side, last year’s overall World Cup winner Akito Watabe continued the same way he left off in March and took the victory with a jump of 103 metres (137.9 p.). Only Austrian Franz Josef Rehrl jumped half a metre more but with slightly lower judges’ scores, he ended up in second position, 2 seconds behind Watabe.

100.5 metres for Yoshito Watabe probably made the brothers’ parents, who were on location from Japan to follow their son’s competitions, very happy as it meant the third rank for their younger son. 130.3 points gave him a 30-second time disadvantage should the PCR have to be used this weekend. Ilkka Herola, Mario Seidl and Terence Weber took positions four to six and would all start within one minute of the leader.