Rydzek strikes back at Olympic test event in PyeongChang

After losing out to his teammate Eric Frenzel in the last TRIPLE race last Sunday, Johannes Rydzek was back to his winning ways in PyeongChang today. He won with 20 seconds over Mario Seidl from Austria, who captured his first podium result in the World Cup today. Fabian Rießle beat Eric Frenzel in a finish line sprint and was third, +38.3 seconds behind Rydzek. With this result, Johannes Rydzek takes back the yellow bib of the World Cup leader from Eric Frenzel.

Mario Seidl had a really good time on the large hill in PyeongChang and has dominated every jumping round held here so far. The competition round of the first Individual Gundersen event was no exception: 136 metres and 139.9 points meant the top spot and a head start of 29 seconds on Germany’s Johannes Rydzek, who seems to have again found his good jumping
performances.. 135.5 metres and 132.6 points put the German in the second position and made him a big favourite for the victory of the day.

Franz-Josef Rehrl repeated his strong performance of the PCR and claimed the third intermediate position, 39 seconds behind leader and teammate Seidl. Fabian Rießle and Eric Frenzel were able to ski together from the start of the race, starting with delays of 56 and 57 seconds, so the three Germans seemed to be en route for the podium again. On top of this, Manuel Faißt joined a strong team effort with the intermediate fourth position, starting into the race 40 seconds behind leader Seidl.

The race started as a lonely affair for Mario Seidl but he was soon joined by Johannes Rydzek who closed the 30-second gap in the first phase of the race. After this, Seidl and Rydzek worked together to avoid losing the gap to the pursuing skiers. Fabian Rießle, Eric Frenzel, Tim Hug and Manuel Faißt tried their utmost to get closer to Rydzek and Seidl but to no avail: the gap did not shrink.

When Rydzek made an attack on the last lap, Seidl was not able to follow him. The Austrian skied a very strong race and ended up with a deserved first World Cup podium of his career. Fabian Rießle was the strongest in a finish line sprint with Eric Frenzel, Schmid improved from rank nine to the final position and Manuel Faißt ended up on the sixth position.

The rest of the Top Ten ranks went to Tim Hug, Yoshito Watabe, Franz-Josef Rehrl and Akito Watabe. Local hero Je-Un Park finished the race on position 31.