Schmid edges Lange for the Mass Start victory in Park City
Dec 13, 2020·Nordic Combined
The second of three Continental Cup competitions in Park City (USA) had to be held on two days, as the wind did not allow jumping the final ski jumping round of the Mass Start event on Saturday evening.
The cross-country race had been held earlier in the day in Soldier Hollow Nordic Centre and Germany’s Jakob Lange took the intermediate lead in his usual strong ski racing style. He finished the 10 km race in 25:50.1 and closed the ski jumping round as the last jumper with an advantage of 4.2 points on runner-up Theo Rochat from France.
Julian Schmid was third and had to catch up 5.5 points on his teammate and the American fans were delighted with a courageous performance by local hero Stephen Schumann. Schumann came in fourth in the race (-6.2 points on Lange) but had been the only other athlete to keep up with the German until the last lap. When he tried following Lange, he not only had to let go on the uphill at last but also fell on the downhill leading back into the valley and lost important second in the process.
Fellow American Niklas Malacinski, who had impressed with a fifth place the day before was also decent on the cross-country track and ranked eleventh (-12.5 p. on Lange).
And again, Malacinski did not disappoint in the ski jumping round: 96 metres and 123.3 points were the fourth best jumping result, which catapulted Malacinski up to the final third place and his career-first Continental Cup podium.
The battle for the victory was fought between two Germans, however, when Julian Schmid challenged Jakob Lange with an 96 metre jump which gave him a total of 121.5 points in the end. Lange showed 92.5 metres, only the tenth-best jump of the field and was bumped down to second place with a point total of 113.5.
Marc Luis Rainer claimed the fourth place for Austria, Jasper Good was fifth and Germany’s Christian Frank ended his competition on rank 6.
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