Würth and Riiber convincing on Oberstdorf 2021 training days
Feb 25, 2021·Nordic Combined
The first two days of official jumping training provided the first glimpses and hints as to the athlete’s jumping shapes before the competition activity starts with the men’s Individual Gundersen even tomorrow.
The women had five jumps in total on the two days, while the men jumped for times.
Maybe the biggest surprise on the women’s side was Germany’s Svenja Würth. The ski jumper who only changed to Nordic Combined before this season had stuggled to unite the bigger volumes of cross-country training and her jumping performance so far but returned to Oberstdorf in good jumping shape and was the top jumper in three of the five rounds, with 99 metres being her longest jump so far.
Reigning Junior World Champion Gyda Westvold Hansen also performed on her steady high level and was second, first, second, fourth, first and second in the five rounds of jumping. Out of the stronger skiers, Japanese Anju Nakamura was much improved on the second day of jumping and claimed positions four, seven and three, which would have he in contention for the medals in the competitions.
Top favourite Tara Geraghty-Moats, also one of the strongest skiers in the field, also needed a little time to warm up to the hill and ended up on positions 20, 8, 18, 23 and 11.
On the men’s side, heavy favourite and World Cup leader Jarl Magnus Riiber was so confident in his jumping abilities that he skipped the first day of training and rightfully so: he was second and first in the two jumps he took on Thursday, jumping to 105 metres in both attempts.
Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto performed on his usual high level and ranked third, second, first and second in the four rounds. Also his teammate Akito Watabe was on a very high level on Wednesday and was second and first but struggled a bit more on Thursday with positions 13 and 5. Estonian Kristjan Ilves impressed with 104 metres and the win in the first training round and was also on a stable good level with positions six, four and five in the following three rounds.
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