Hirner and Gruber win Austrian national titles 2019
Oct 21, 2019·Nordic Combined
The Austrian summer national championships on the normal and large hill took place in Tschagguns and Bergisel/Fulpmes last weekend. While the normal hill competitions ended with victories for Lisa Hirner and veteran Bernhard Gruber, the large hill events had to be cancelled due to the wind conditions.
16-year-old Lisa Hirner won the inaugural national championships for Nordic Combined women in Austria. Hirner delivered her usual strong ski jumping performance with 79.5 metres and 92.5 points and started her 5 km race already with 39 seconds of head start on runner-up Johanna Bassani. Bassani showed 74 metres, followed by Sigrun Kleinrath with 70 metres.
Hirner proved that she is the best Austrian Nordic Combined athlete on the women’s side by also setting the fastest cross-country time. She won the race in a time of 15:47.1 and with a clear advantage of 50.3 seconds on Bassani, who in turn had a comfortable distance to Kleinrath at the finish line (+1:28.1). Annalena Slamik was fourth, Marit Weichselbraun fifth and Mani Cooper sixth. Eva Hubinger did not start the cross-country race.
Lisa Hirner: “The conditions in the jumping event were tough and the track in the race was wet and slippery. I had a great starting position after the jump and just really went for it. Now I am really proud that I won the first-ever Austrian national title in Women’s Nordic Combined."
On the men’s side, Franz-Josef Rehrl was the strongest jumper of the day with 93.5 metres. His head start, however, was only two seconds and veteran and 2015 World Champion Bernhard Gruber was breathing down his neck during the 10 km race. Martin Fritz was third with a delay of 13 seconds at the start line.
Fritz, Gruber and Rehrl fought an intense battle on the track and veteran Gruber could make use of all of this experience. In the end, the 37-year-old prevailed with 1.9 seconds ahead of Martin Fritz and 3.9 seconds ahead of Summer Grand Prix champion Rehrl.
“I am very pleased with the title on the normal hill. After my double victory in 2014, this is my third national championship title. The team is very strong and you have to deliver something special to win here. I was very satisfied with my performance and gave everything. I just really love it when winter is close and the competition spirit is slowly coming back”, winner Gruber said.
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