Franz-Josef Rehrl debuts with World Cup win on Day 1 of the TRIPLE
Jan 18, 2019·Nordic Combined
Austria’s Franz-Josef Rehrl has claimed his maiden win in the 5 km Individual Gundersen event on Day 1 of the Nordic Combined TRIPLE. Rehrl finished 9.4 seconds ahead of Espen Bjørnstad (NOR) and Fabian Rießle (GER), whose rankings had to be determined by a photo finish. In the end, Bjørnstad set a new career-best with the second place and Rießle claimed the bronze position.
In the jumping event, Franz-Josef Rehrl confirmed one more time that he is one of the best jumpers of the field. He showed the longest jump of the day with 118 metres (139.7 p.) and conquered the pole position but was not fully convinced 26 seconds of advantage would last during the race. It was teammate Mario Seidl, who followed him out on the track next. Norway’s Espen Bjørnstad started just one second later at +0:27 (115 m; 133 p.) and brother duo Yoshito and Akito Watabe were able to begin their race together from positions four and five (+0:32 and +0:34).
Fabian Rießle was well set up to conquer a top position today after yet another good jump of 112 metres. The German had a start delay of 41 seconds to contend with. Jumping prodigy Jarl Magnus Riiber did not have a good jump and had a lot of ground to make up right at the beginning of the TRIPLE already: 109 metres (124.3 p.) meant only position twelve and a start delay of one minute and two seconds for the World Cup leader and TRIPLE favourite.
Johannes Rydzek was ranked even further behind after jumping to only 109 metres (121 p) and started with a delay of one minute and 15 seconds. Maxime Laheurte was the best Frenchman on rank 17 (+1:18), Jørgen Graabak and Eric Frenzel started with delays of +1:25 and +1:26.
As usual, the 5 km race was a full throttle, fast paced affair, which did not offer the chance to make up a lot of ground for the pursuers if the leading athletes went all in. Franz-Josef Rehrl did exactly that. A fast first lap by Rehrl made it impossible for pursuers Fabian Rießle, Akito Watabe, Mario Seidl, Espen Bjørnstad and Yoshito Watabe to reduce the gap below the 26 seconds that Seidl had as a disadvantage on the start line.
In the second lap, Rehrl showed signs of wear but kept the eye on his prize and strong and all pursuers securely behind him. He had enough time to celebrate his maiden victory down the final stretch before the group of pursuers came charging. In an incredibly tight finish, Fabian Rießle and Espen Bjørnstad sprinted for the second position, with the Norwegian having the “longer toe” in the end, as he reported in the following press conference. Akito Watabe had to be satisfied with the fourth place once again as he finished 0.5 seconds after Bjørnstad and Rießle.
The rest of the Top Ten positions went to Mario Seidl (+12.7), Yoshito Watabe (+24.7), Martin Fritz (+43.8), Johannes Rydzek (+44.0) and Terence Weber (+44.4). Yellow bib bearer Jarl Magnus Riiber reduced his time disadvantage from +1:02 to 41.2 seconds in the end and finished seventh.
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