Jarl Riiber ends Norwegian World Championship drought
Feb 28, 2019·Nordic Combined
Jarl Magnus Riiber can call himself the first Norwegian Nordic Combined World Champion since 2005! The 21-year-old showed a tactical masterpiece of a cross-country race and was the strongest man on the final stretch, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead of Austrian veteran Bernhard Gruber. With this result, Gruber, who was only picked for the Austrian squad at the eleventh hour, claimed his second medal of the championships. Akito Watabe skied to bronze and crossed the finish line +4.6 seconds after Riiber.
Riiber was screaming with relief after a jump of 107 metres put him in the lead of the jumping part of the event. After a struggle with the Bergisel jumping hill and issues with setting the Telemark landing throughout the season, as well as having to leave the bar twice before finally jumping today, the weight that was taken off the 21-year-old’s shoulders was palpable.135.6 points total put Riiber in the pole position for the race by 6 seconds.
Second was Riiber’s teammate Espen Bjørnstad, who continued a series of second and third places in the jumping competitions this winter. 134.1 points meant a head start of one second on third-placed local hero and double bronze medallist Franz-Josef Rehrl, who jumped to 106.5 metres (133.9 p.).
As customary for a normal hill event, the starting list was packed tightly with 14 athletes starting within the first minute of the race: Poland’s Szczepan Kupczak and Italian Samuel Costa started their race at +0:17 and +0:19 and Akito Watabe, Terence Weber, Go Yamamoto and Gruber followed at +0:21 and +0:22.
Out of the fast Germans, Vinzenz Geiger had the best starting position with a delay of +0:35. Johannes Rydzek and Fabian Rießle started their race together with a time disadvantage of +1:16 and +1:17. World Champion Eric Frenzel did not have his best jump today and ended up on position 22, +1:23 behind the leader but in the company of fast skiers Eero Hirvonen and Ilkka Herola (+1:23 and +1:24).
Espen Bjørnstad had to let go of teammate Jarl Riiber already on the first metres of the race and so it was a duo of Riiber and Franz-Josef Rehrl that tackled the first 2.5 km together in Seefeld’s soft, slow and wet snow conditions. Rehrl, however, was no match for Riiber’s speed and fell back to the pursuing group consisting of teammate Bernhard Gruber, Akito Watabe, Samuel Costa, Espen Bjørnstad and Terence Weber by the 3.6 km point.
The pursuing five were down to three athletes, Gruber, Watabe and Rehrl at the 5 km point but Jarl Riiber was tired of having to lead alone in the difficult track conditions and made a calculated move to slow down, conserving energy until the group had caught up with him. They stayed together for most of the next lap until Franz-Josef Rehrl was the first to have to concede defeat and let go of the group on the fourth and last lap. So it was clear that the medals would be distributed between Riiber, Watabe and Gruber but who would take which colour was up in the air until the last metres of the race.
Watabe tried to attack on the last uphill and went into the downhill leading to the stadium first but Riiber followed suit and shone with his usual finishing brilliance on the final stretch. He sprinted to a clear victory and also Bernhard Gruber attacked the Japanese in a full-on bid for the silver medal. 36-year-old Gruber was rewarded in the end and claimed silver, four years after his gold triumph of Falun 2015. Akito Watabe had to be satisfied with the third place this time but had been missing an individual World Championship bronze medal is his collection so far.
Franz-Josef Rehrl was the unlucky fourth, while the fastest man on track, Finland’s Ilkka Herola stormed to a strong fifth place from starting position 24 after the jumping part. Espen Bjørnstad finished sixth, Mario Seidl was seventh, Johannes Rydzek and Jørgen Graabak eighth and ninth and Leevi Mutru tenth.
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