Closing Seefeld 2019 with team spirit
Mar 01, 2019·Nordic Combined
The NH 4 x 5 km team event will close the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships for Nordic Combined. Three final medals are on the line and Team Germany has the best track record from the most recent championships, taking gold in Lahti 2017 and Falun 2015. In Seefeld, Norway and Austria could both claim four medals at a single world championships for the first time. Only Germany (4 times), France (2) and the United States (1) have previously achieved this.
But also for individual athletes, much is at stake in the last Seefeld 2019 event: Norway’s Jan Schmid has won the most medals at the world championships without winning a gold. German superstar Eric Frenzel can become the third man to win at least three gold medals at one edition, after Rydzek (4 in 2017) and Jason Lamy Chappuis (3 in 2013) and yesterday’s winner Jarl Magnus Riiber could join compatriots Bjarte Engen Vik and Trond Einar Elden in winning multiple World Champion titles at one edition of the championships.
For the local heroes, Franz-Josef Rehrl, Mario Seidl, Lukas Klapfer and Bernhard Gruber are on start, a perfect mixture of jumping and cross-country strength, of experience and youth that will look to delight the home crowd with more hardware. For Germany, Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek and Vinzenz Geiger will try to continue their nation’s golden success streak. For Norway, newly-minted World Champion Jarl Magnus Riiber will lead the team of Jan Schmid, Jørgen Graabak and Espen Bjørnstad into the field.
Beyond the “big three” nations, getting a team medal, let alone gold has been notoriously difficult in recent years. Japan is the only non-European country to have won a gold medal in this event at the FIS World Championships in 1995 and 2009 and the French “golden generation” took the title in Val di Fiemme 2013, as well as a bronze in Falun 2015.
Also in tomorrow’s event, France, Finland, Japan and Italy might rather fight for the positions four and upwards if the “big three” are coming through as normal but still, Japan’s jumping proficiency or the fast skiers from Team Finland could make a difference. Especially with changing weather and wind conditions in Seefeld yesterday and today, it remains to be seen what Lady Fortuna has in store for the Nordic Combined teams tomorrow.
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