OPA-M: Lamparter and Dagn on top in Baiersbronn

While the Olympics in Pyeongchang are in full swing, the Nordic Combined junior athletes competed against each other in the second last Alpencup of the season in Baiersbronn.

On Saturday, heavy snowfall made a jumping round impossible. Therefore Friday’s PCR had to be used for the 10km race. Strong Austrian Johannes Lamparter was the first one out, only 2 seconds ahead of Jan Vytrval (CZE) and eight seconds ahead of Simon Hüttel (GER). While Lamparter and Vytrval were able to control the race, many athletes struggled with the hard course and the difficult weather conditions.

On the fifth lap, the strong cross country skier Lamparter was able to create a gap between him and Vytrval, that the young Czech was not able to close anymore.  At the end Lamparter celebrated his first Alpencup victory ahead of Vytrval and the leader of the overall Alpencup, Edgar Vallet from France. Fourth place went to Luis Lehnert (GER), fifth was Tim Kopp (GER), sixth Florian Dagn (AUT).

On Sunday the weather improved and the athletes were able to show a jumping round on a very high level. Once again it was Johannes Lamparter, who was the measure of all things with a jump on 90.5m. This time, his teammate Florian Dagn was able to keep up with him and even managed to jump 0.5m further than Lamparter. Due to some style deductions both of them ended up with the same amount of points. Right behind them it was a very close affair. With Nick Siegemund, Julian Ketterer and Tim Kopp three athletes landed at 89.5m, while Jonas Maier and Christian Frank had a jump on 88.5m.

The cross country race,however, was dominated by the two Austrians in front, who fought for the win until the very end. Third place went to Tim Kopp, who showed a very strong cross-country performance. Fourth was Nick Siegemund, fifth Julian Schmid and sixth Jonas Maier, who won the final sprint against Jan Vytrval.

Romina Eggert