Results pre-season competitions
Nov 23, 2020·Nordic Combined
Norwegian National Championships, Beitostølen
The Norwegian team opened their winter season with the customary big pre-season competition weekend in Beitostølen. The national championships titles were handed out in 5 and 10 km Individual Gundersen competitions for the men and on the 2.5 and 5 km distances for the women.
On the women’s side, team leader Gyda Westvold Hansen impressed with two clear wins. On Saturday, she started her race with an +1:45 minute head start after collecting 145.4 points in the previous jumping event. She held runner-up Marte Leinan Lund at exactly that distance to claim the title. Hanna Midtsundstad was third, +2:41 behind the winner.
On Sunday, Westvold Hansen won the event by +1:14. She collected 149.4 points on the hill but started only 49 seconds ahead of an improved Mari Leinan Lund (137.2 p.). In the 5 km race, Westvold Hansen increased the gap again to cross the finish line as the undisputed winner again. This time, the third place went to Marte Leinan Lund (+2:00).
On the men’s side, Jarl Magnus Riiber claimed the expected title on the 5 km distance. In his usual fashion, he dominated the jumping event (159.3 p.) and then cruised to a +34.6 second advantage on Jørgen Graabak at the finish line. The third place went to Espen Bjørnstad, while Estonian Kristjan Ilves ended up on a very respectable fourth place.
On Sunday, however, Riiber did not have a good jump (98.9 p.) and ended up starting one minute and 6 seconds behind jumping winner Espen Bjørnstad (115.5 p.). With this configuration, Riiber got the chance to exercise his cross-country prowess and claimed the second place with the second-fast race time, +16.5 seconds behind the happy winner Bjørnstad. In total, Riiber was only 0.8 seconds slower than the fastest skier of the field, Jørgen Graabak, who ended up on the fourth place. Third was taken by Jens Lurås Oftebro, who finished +17.4 seconds after Bjørnstad.
Finnish National Championships Taivalkoski
In Finland, the small hill Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined National Championships planned for 21.-22. November had had to be canceled due to the prevailing snow situation and an unfavourable weather forecast. The Taivalkoski hill was not in competition condition for the weekend.
International Cross-Country race Rovaniemi
Instead, the Finnish national team athletes, alongside other international cross-country skiers and the Nordic Combined national team from the Czech Republic took part in a 13-kilometre cross-country race in Rovaniemi.
Finnish team leaders Eero Hirvonen and Ilkka Herola impressed with the third and fourth places out of 34 skiers and finished just +31-7 and 41.4 seconds after winner Naoto Baba from Japan. Leevi Mutru was eleventh, Arrtu Mäkiaho twelfth, Perttu Reponen 15th, Jan Vytrval 16th, Tomas Portyk 17th, Atte Kettunen 20th, Wille Karhumaa 21st, Otto Niittykoski 25th, Ondrej Pazout 26th, Olli Salmela 27th and Waltteri Karhumaa 29th.
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