Jørgen Graabak wrestles PCR win from Riiber
Dec 20, 2019·Nordic Combined
Jørgen Graabak is the second person to win a Nordic Combined jumping round in the season 2019/20. The 28-year-old won with a jump of 95.5 metres and 132 points and would have a narrow head start of 2 seconds on Riiber. The World Cup leader showed 93 metres in very difficult conditions. With 7.6 plus points for tail wind, Riiber accumulated 131.4 points and claimed a strong second position.
Yoshito Watabe had the longest jump of the day with 101.5 metres but some troubles with his landing and better wind conditions gave him only 129.9 points and a delay of eight seconds.
Jens Lurås Oftebro was fourth and local hero Franz-Josef Rehrl fifth, both with 100 metres each. They would take up their races +0:17 and +0:23 seconds after Graabak. Finland’s Ilkka Herola was almost surprised by his strong sixth place after a 92 metre-jump that did not feel that good but took place in quite adverse wind conditions as well (+7.2 points wind compensation).
If the PCR has to be used on the weekend, Herola would have to make up a delay of +0:35 seconds and be followed by fast German skier Vinzenz Geiger at +0:36. Espen Bjørnstad, Terence Weber and Martin Fritz completed the Top Ten.
In total, the 50 qualified athletes all started within +2:55 of each other with 16 athletes starting within the first minute. As Slovenia’s Vid Vrhovnik was disqualified, four other athletes did not make the cut after their jump in the qualification: USA’s Taylor Fletcher, Finland’s Leevi Mutri, Viacheslav Barkov (RUS) and Poland’s Adam Cieslar.
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