COC: Geraghty-Moats and Weber take first wins in Nizhny Tagil

Tara Geraghty-Moats and Terence Weber are the first winners of the Continental Cup Finals weekend in Nizhny Tagil. The American stormed to the win from position 10 and won by 22.6 seconds, while Germany’s Weber had to outsprint Lars Ivar Skaarset  (+1.5) for the win.

Skaarset was the best male jumper on the hill in a cold Russian morning that greeted the athletes with sun and temperatures of -18°C. The Norwegian showed a beautiful jump of 94 metres and claimed 111.2 points to take the pole position for the race. World Cup athlete and World Championship medal winner Terence Weber from Germany was second with 87.5 metres and 110.7 points and started only two seconds behind Skaarset.

The third intermediate position went to Continental Cup leader Simen Tiller, who reached 92 metres and 106.3 points. He will chase the leaders with a delay of 20 seconds at the start line and be followed by Germany’s David Mach who began his race 12 seconds after the Norwegian. The only other athletes starting within the first minute of the race were Tomas Rettenegger (+0:45), Timofey Borisov (+0:46) and Simon Hüttel (+0:59).

On the women’s side, Austrian Annalena Slamik took the lead with 89.5 metres. A point total of 112.5 points gave her a 22-second head start on runner-up, local hero Stefaniya Nadymova. The Russian showed 85 metres to claim 106.9 points.

Former Ski Jumper Svenja Würth from Germany did not disappoint on the hill in Nizhny Tagil either. Würth set the longest jump of the day with 95 metres but was not able to set a telemark landing at this distance and so she had to start her race from position three with a delay of 31 seconds. Teammate Jenny Nowak was fourth and accompanied Würth on the track by only starting four seconds after her. Svetlana Gladikova was the last athlete to start within the first minute of the race with +0:57.

Even though she had to compete with a deficit of one minute and 41 seconds, overall World Cup winner Tara Geraghty-Moats started the race with a knife between her teeth. Much like her race at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, the 27-year-old started fast, continued fast and ended fast - only today she managed to ski to the very top of the podium. By the end of the first of two laps, Geraghty-Moats had caught Annalena Slamik, Stefaniya Nadymova and Jenny Nowak, who had formed a trio quickly into the race, joined by a strong skiing Sigrun Kleinrath.

Of the leading athletes after jumping, Svenja Würth had to let go first and was not able to oppose faster skiers coming up behind her: the 27-year-old German ended up on the eleventh place eventually. Her teammate Jenny Nowak managed to hang on to the leaders longer but both her other teammates Maria Gerboth and Cindy Haasch climbed up the ranks together with Geraghty-Moats, so that a big group formed halfway through the race.

When Geraghty-Moats showed no signs of stopping after catching the leaders, it was Sigrun Kleinrath, who is almost ten years her junior, who managed to follow best. German Maria Gerboth skied a very strong second lap as well to finish 0.4 seconds after Kleinrath and also Cindy Haasch impressed by finishing just 2.9 seconds off the podium in fourth. Slamik ended up on position five and Nadymova was the best Russian in position six.

In the men’s race, Simen Tiller closed the gap to a slow-starting Terence Weber and Lars Ivar Skaarset on the first lap. After that the trio visibly discussed who should take the leading work but was not able to put enough speed on to the track to keep a fast-approaching Taylor Fletcher at bay. On the last lap, the American veteran had closed his one minute and 40 second gap and brought Germans David Mach and Julian Schmid with him.

Now, the leaders finally were on the same page about their strategy and attacked a visibly tired Taylor Fletcher on the big uphill of the course. Fletcher had nothing left in the tank to oppose the two Norwegians and one German and also Weber’s teammates Mach and Schmid were not able to go with the top 3 athletes.

So it was Weber, Skaarset or Tiller who would claim the victory and World-Cup experienced Terence Weber used the last small uphill into the stadium best to get into the best position for the last metres and claimed his first-ever Continental Cup victory. Skaarset could only follow but not attack Weber anymore and claimed rank two, Tiller gave up on the final stretch and claimed position three.

Fletcher, Mach and Schmid expectedly ranked fourth, fifth and sixth and Jared Shumate completed a good team result for the USA in seventh. Wendelin Thannheimer, Fabio Obermeyr and Thomas Rettenegger completed the Top Ten.

Ski Jumping Results W
Ski Jumping Results M
Final Results W
Final Results M