Riiber weathers Schonach snowstorm to take last win and globe
Mar 17, 2019·Nordic Combined
Jarl Magnus Riiber won the last race of the season in heavy weather conditions that had the athletes start in rain, continue in hail and finish in sleet and snow and blistering cold winds 25 minutes later. Jarl Riiber demonstrated his cross-country prowess with a 25-second victory over runner-up Jan Schmid. Bernhard Gruber crossed the finish line 38.2 seconds after Riiber to take third. With this victory, Riiber won the overall with 1518 points and matched Hannu Manninen's record of 12 wins a season.
Sun and blue skies greeted approximately 5.000 fans who had come out to see the Final Individual Gundersen event in Schonach but unfortunately, strong winds made any kind of jumping impossible on Sunday morning. Therefore, Saturday’s PCR had to be used and the competition format was changed to a 10 km race that included all of the 54 PCR starters.
Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto won the PCR and displaying a stable good level of jumping through the entire weekend. 103 metres and 126 points gave the 21-year-old the pole position for the race. 17 seconds later, overall World Cup winner 2018/19 Jarl Magnus Riiber left the start line after a jump on 108.5 metres, the new hill record in Schonach. A weaker landing gave him a point total of 121.7 points. Germany’s David Welde was third with a jump of 99.5 metres (118.9 p.) and a time behind of 31 seconds.
Athletes with a promising starting position were Jan Schmid (rank 4, +0:40), Akito Watabe (+1:06) and Franz-Josef Rehrl (+1:19) were fighting for the ranks two and three in the overall standings from position nine and twelve and fast skiers Ilkka Herola and Alessandro Pittin were chasing the top with time behinds of +1:22 and +1:31.
Heavy weather conditions and a considerable drop in temperatures made the 10 km race very tough for all, athletes and spectators alike. Riiber passed leader Yamamoto already on the first lap and proceeded to ski a lonely race all the way to the finish line.
Behind Riiber it was Jan Schmid and Bernhard Gruber who were able to brave the conditions best. Skiing together until the 8 km point, Schmid was able to set a final attack that yesterday’s winner Gruber was not able to match.
Alessandro Pittin made good use of his good starting position for the race and ended up on the fourth place at +49.2, Akito Watabe ended his season on rank five (+1:12.9) and with the second rank in the overall. Ilkka Herola and Paul Gerstgraser were sixth and seventh and with his eighth place, Franz-Josef Rehrl conquered the third place in the overall standings. The Top Ten were completed by Lukas Greiderer and Magnus Krog, the fastest skier in the field today, improving from rank 37 to 10.
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