Jarl Riiber masters tough conditions in Ramsau am Dachstein
Dec 22, 2018·Nordic Combined
Even windy and wet conditions could not deter Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber from taking his fourth victory in a row. Also Ramsau am Dachstein proved to be a fruitful venue for the 21-year-old, who beat local hero Franz-Josef Rehrl in a finish line sprint by 2.3 seconds. Germany’s Fabian Rießle was the fastest sprinter in a big group fighting for the remaining podium place and finished 19.1 seconds after Riiber.
After a long jumping round in which the athletes had to brave heavy tail wind conditions, rain and changing winds, the jury was not able to guarantee the safety of the last jumpers. Therefore the round was cancelled and yesterday’s Provisional Competition Round had to be used as the basis for the race.
On Friday, local hero Franz-Josef Rehrl, who lives just 5 minutes away from the jumping hill, had been the best jumper on Ramsau am Dachstein’s HS 98 normal hill. Rehrl landed at 95 metres and with 133.1 points, he took the win over Norwegian World Cup overall leader Jarl Magnus Riiber.
Riiber had shown the longest jump of the competition round with 98.5 metres but did not stick the landing properly and received point deductions from the jumping judges. Both athletes, Rehrl and Riiber, started from one gate lower than the rest of the field after two coach requests. Nine seconds separated them at the start of the race.
Third in the ranking of the day was Yoshito Watabe (94.5 m; 123.8 p.), who beat older brother Akito (94.5 m 119.9 p.) and followed the leading duo after 37 seconds. Akito had a start delay of 53 seconds. Just four seconds behind him, another Japanese, Go Yamamoto, followed him. The rest of the jumping Top Ten went to Mario Seidl (+1:03), Johannes Rydzek (+1:04), Vinzenz Geiger (+1:15) and last year’s winner Fabian Rießle (+1:16). Superstar Eric Frenzel was not fully satisfied with his performance that only brought him to rank 29, starting one minute and 42 seconds after the leader.
Jarl Magnus Riiber and Franz-Josef Rehrl stayed together for the entire race and had discussed beforehand to work together to keep the big group of charging pursuers at bay. Interchanging in the lead, the Norwegian and Austrian were in full control of the gap to the pursuers and proceeded to the final stretch of the race to battle for the victory. Serial winner Riiber proved to be the the strongest man but Rehrl celebrated his career-best second place in front of friends and family like a win.
In typical Ramsau-manner, a big group formed behind the first two athletes and strong skiers Fabian Rießle, Johannes Rydzek and Vinzenz Geiger took their chances for a podium result, as did Japan’s Akito Watabe, Bernhard Gruber, Jan Schmid and Mario Seidl. The group managed to reduce the gap to the leaders from around 50 seconds at the start to 45 at the halfway point, to 37 at the 7.5 km point but didn’t really have any hope to catch the two breakout athletes.
In the final lap, eleven athletes were still in the running but a higher speed reduced the podium candidates to seven athletes. Even though their trip to the cross-country sprints in Davos last weekend was not a successful one, Fabian Rießle and Johannes Rydzek proved that if you have one jump and a sprint after a 10 km race, they are a force to be reckoned with. Fabian Rießle proved to be 0.2 seconds faster than Rydzek in the end, who in turn won a photo finish with team- and clubmate Vinzenz Geiger.
Akito Watabe finished sixth, the rest of the Top Ten spots went to Bernhard Gruber, Jan Schmid, Mario Seidl and Terence Weber.
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