Schmid/Graabak repeat their 2015 triumph in Val di Fiemme
Jan 12, 2019·Nordic Combined
Val di Fiemme continues to be a good place for Norwegian teams: Jan Schmid and Jørgen Graabak sprinted to the Team Sprint victory in the second event of the weekend and repeated their 2015 triumph. Team Norway I fended off the attacks of both German teams: Johannes Rydzek and Vinzenz Geiger (GER I) finished second and beat their teammates Eric Frenzel and Fabian Rießle of Germany II in a photo finish.
Jan Schmid and Jørgen Graabak won the ski jumping round in Predazzo with two jumps of 127.5 and 125 metres. A team total of 267.7 points placed the yellow-bib bearers 31 seconds ahead of “Team Oberstdorf”, Vinzenz Geiger and Johannes Rydzek. Even though Eric Frenzel’s jumping for Team Germany II was still not on his usual level with 114 metres today, his teammate Fabian Rießle had a very good jump of 128.5 metres and secured the third place in the start grid with a delay of 38 seconds at the start line.
The next teams followed very close together.Austria I took up their race +0:49 seconds after Schmid/Graabak, local heroes Alessandro Pittin and Samuel Costa delighted their home crowd with a +0:51 start time, the same time that Magnus Krog and Espen Bjørnstad secured for Team Norway II. Yoshito Watabe and Go Yamamoto followed at +1:03, even though Yamamoto had the longest jump of the day with 129 metres. Unfortunately, Watabe had difficulties in the air and landed at 108.5 metres only. Team France (Braud/Gerard) followed at +1:07.
Schmid and Graabak had made a tactical that included staying ahead of the German teams as long as possible and this plan succeeded very well until the 10 km mark of the race. On the last two laps, the three teams stayed together and kept the speed up, so that the fast approaching local heroes from Italy were not able to close the gap fully in the end.
For the three top teams, it was clear that a finish line sprint between Graabak, Geiger and Rießle would decide the win. All knows for their sprinting prowess, the three athletes started the final stretch together with Graabak gaining the advantage in the middle. He finally finishes 0.5 seconds ahead of the two Germans. A photo finish had to decide the positions two and three and here Vinzenz Geiger had the upper hand and relegated teammate Fabian Rießle to rank three.
Behind the top three teams, the Italian squad consisting of Samuel Costa and Alessandro Pittin tried their utmost to close the gap to the athletes in front of them but were not able close the gap in the end. However, they managed to shake off Team Norway II (Krog/Bjørnstad) and Austria I (Greiderer/Klapfer) on their quest for the podium and finished fourth, 39.4 seconds after the winners. Greiderer/Klapfer claimed rank five, Krog/Bjørnstad were sixth.
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