OPA: Gala weekend at home for Justin Moczarski

Local hero Justin Moczarski made the best out of his home Alpencup weekend in Winterberg. Two first places went to the German, who also took over the lead in the overall Alpencup standings with 290 points.

Moczarski started the weekend right with a jumping victory in the HS 87 metre hill. 83.5 metres and 119 points gave Moczarski a 8-second lead on runner-up Manuel Einkemmer from Austria. Jonas Maier jumped 82.5 metres to take the third position at the start of the race, 14 seconds behind the leader.

But even with 66 athletes giving chase, the local hero pleased the crowd and was not to be shaken from the top position on the 10 km roller ski race in Winterberg’s city centre. Behind Moczarski, the result list was mixed anew, however and Austrian Dominik Terzer stormed to a second rank, coming from position 12. He finished 35.6 seconds after the winner and 1.6 seconds ahead of third-placed Giulio Bezzi from Italy. The fastest skier was France’s Theo Rochat, who improved from position 31 to a final fourth rank.

On Sunday, Moczarski had to apply a different race tactic as he only started into the 5 km sprint race from position four. Slovene Matevz Malorvh had taken the honours of the pole position with a jump of 85.5 metres, followed by Austria’s Fabian Hafner (84.5 m) and teammate Manuel Einkemmer (83.5 m). But with just 10 seconds to make up, Moczarski left the other athletes behind one more time.

This time, Theo Rochat’s fast skiing had him improve from rank 36 to the second position, crossing the finish line just 8.8 seconds after Moczarski. Aaron Kostner finished third, +9.6 seconds after the winner.

Overall Standings