Germany unstoppable: Rießle leads another sweep

Also in 2017, the German team seems to be in unstoppable shape. This time, it was Fabian Rießle who stepped up and took his fourth career victory. He distanced his teammates Eric Frenzel by 4.6 and Johannes Rydzek by 11.6 seconds, making it into yet another complete podium sweep for the German team.

In the absence of jumping sensation Jarl Riiber, who only competed on one day upon his return to the World Cup, Eric Frenzel took a clear jumping win on the HS 130. 130.5 metres gave him 137.1 points and a six-second lead on Italy’s Samuel Costa who continued in strong shape also today. After a disastrous jump yesterday, Akito Watabe was back with 126 metres. 134.6 points put him 10 seconds behind Frenzel on the track.

The day already had the potential to be another glory day for the German team after the jumping part, as several athletes held good starting positions for the race. The hottest candidate for the win was Fabian Rießle who had a very good jump of 125.5 metres. 133.1 point meant only 16 seconds to catch up on his teammate Frenzel. Also veteran Björn Kircheisen positioned himself well and had 39 seconds to make up, Johannes Rydzek started at +0:59.

A leading group of five athletes formed around World Cup leader Frenzel on the first uphill out of the stadium and until the intermediate point of the race, Frenzel, Rießle and Watabe alternated with the leading work while Italy’s Samuel Costa and Austrian Franz-Josef Rehrl tried their best to hang on to the group. Ultimately, these two were not up to the speed of the leaders and so the two Germans and one Japanese plus Björn Kircheisen, who had closed the gap to the leading group in the first third of the race, continued the fight for the podium positions as a group of four.

As yesterday, Johannes Rydzek was the fastest man on the track and closed the 59-second gap to the group on the uphill going out of the stadium on the last lap. But Fabian Rießle was having none of it. By the intermediate time of the last lap, he accelerated the speed, broke away from Eric Frenzel, Akito Watabe and also Johannes Rydzek. While Frenzel was strong enough to fend Rydzek off, the Japanese fell to the greater stamina of the German, so that yet another complete German podium sweep became reality. Björn Kircheisen on rank five completed another great team result.

But also for the local heroes from Finland, the second competition of the weekend held great achievements. Ilkka Herola finished eight, Leevi Mutru from Lahti accomplished another career-best as tenth. Only Hannu Manninen did not get the chance to improve on his 18th place from yesterday as he did not make it through the qualification held before the jumping round in the morning. 91 metres and 66.4 points meant rank 52 and an early end to the day for the Nordic Combined legend.