COC: Westvold Hansen and Einkemmer celebrate victories
Feb 23, 2020·Nordic Combined
Difficult conditions during the men’s jumping round led to 23 athletes starting their race within the first minute. The winner of the ski jumping part was Norway’s Simen Tiller (98.5m, 120.8 p.), 2 seconds ahead of Jonas Maier (103m, 120.2 p.) and 15 seconds ahead of Daimatsu Takehana (99.5m, 117.1 p.). Ernest Yahin (98.5m, 116.9 p.), Thomas Rettenegger (97.5m, 115.3 p.) and Waltteri Karhumaa (98.5m, 115.2 p.) followed on rank four, five and six.
Already by the beginning of the second lap the following athletes were able to catch the leading athletes, which led to a large leading group with two Italians Raffaele Buzzi and Lukas Runggaldier, Austrians Thomas and Stefan Rettenegger, Manuel Einkemmer and Germany’s Jakob Lange.
Strong cross-country skier Lange struggled with problems with his skis and had to let the other athletes pass by. Right before the finish line it was Einkemmer, Buzzi and Runggaldier fighting for the three spots on the podium, with the young Austrian having enough energy left to beat the two Italians and celebrate his first-ever Continental Cup win.
Buzzi was able to beat Runggaldier in the finish sprint and ended up on the second place in front of his teammate. Stefan Rettenegger, Simen Tiller and Thomas Rettenegger finished fourth, fifth and sixth.
The winner of the weekend’s third competition once again came from Norway. This time it was Gyda Westvold Hansen, who was able to climb the top of the podium.
The foundation was already laid in the jumping round, when Westvold Hansen was able to reach the second place with a jump of 95m (107.5 p.) and started her race +0:22 seconds behind Ski Jumping World Cup athlete Svenja Würth, who tried her luck in Nordic Combined in today’s competition. Würth landed a jump of 92.5m (113.1 p.), but went from four gates lower than all of her opponents. The third place after jumping went to young Austrian Lisa Hirner (96.5m, 103.4 p.), who started +0:39 seconds behind Würth.
Würth started her very first cross-country race on a competitive level highly motivated and was even able to extend her lead in the very beginning but the course in Eisenerz proved to be very demanding and with missing experience in pacing herself, she was not able to finish the race in the end.
Westvold Hansen closed the gap to Würth and took the lead after the first few climbs and kept it all the way up to the finish line. Behind her, it was Tara Geraghty-Moats and Anju Nakamura fighting for rank two and three – with the better ending for the U.S. athlete this time. Both of them had already been very close to each other after the ski jumping part. Geraghty-Moats jumped 91.5m (90.9) which brought her to rank 11, Nakamura landed on rank 12 with a jump on 92.5m (90.7). Both of them showed that they are on a quite similar level also in cross-country skiing and ended the race with a finish sprint. Hirner, Marte Leinan Lund and Ayana Miyazaki completed the top six.
Westvold Hansen’s win brings the number of women to have won a Continental Cup this year to four, with Tara Geraghty-Moats, Marte Leinan Lund, Anju Nakamura and Westvold Hansen winning events so far.
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