Estonian national titles go to Robert Lee and Annemarii Bendi
Oct 22, 2019·Nordic Combined
In the absence of team Estonia’s best athlete Kristjan Ilves, who continues to train with the Norwegian team, the Estonian national championships have been held at Otepää last weekend.
Annemarii Bendi captured the title in the women’s category once more while 18-year-old Robert Lee celebrated his first national title in the men’s category. The M-16 title went to Sten-Jörgen Leis.
Both Lee and Bendi laid the foundations for their victories on the jumping hill. Bendi showed 87 metres (101 p.), while Lee jumped to 94 m (120.5 p.). For Bendi, this performance meant a one minute and 18-second head start on Triinu Hausenberg. Carena Roomets was even further behind with four minutes and 40 seconds of handicap after a 56 metre jump.
Robert Lee had a comfortable one minute and 56 seconds-lead as the jumping runner-up, Markkus Alter had already landed at 81.5 metres (91.5 p.). Andreas Ilves followed two seconds later.
Bendi was the uncontested queen also on the cross-country track and won the race with the fastest skiing time of 14:35. Hausenberg was 10 seconds slower and crossed the finish line at +1:28. Carena Roomets ended her race on position three, +6:14 behind the winner.
Even though Andreas Ilves had the best skiing time of 20:17 on the 10 km distance, he was not able to close the gap more than the +1:10 disadvantage at the finish line but his performance earned him the second place. Markkus Alter fell behind and won bronze in a time of 22:12. Markus Kägu was fourth, Sten-Jörgen Leis fifth.
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