COC: Golden double for Jakob Lange in Nizhny Tagil

Jakob Lange from Germany is the first winner of the first Continental Cup this season in Nizhny Tagil (Russia).

Nizhny Tagil and the "Aist" Ski Jumping venue welcomed the Continental Cup athletes in excellent conditions: A lot of snow, strong frost, as well as perfectly prepared Ski Jumping NH and Cross-Country tracks. Only on Saturday the wind ruffled the nerves of the competitors a little.

At Friday Sakutaro Kobayashi was the best jumper on the hill. The Japanese athlete showed a good jump of 94,5 metres and claimed 123.6 points to take the pole position for the race. A incredible distant jumping succeeded Carter Brubaker (USA) – 101,0 metres. But he received modest points for his technique and took an intermediate second place (123,1 points and delay of two seconds at the start line). The third intermediate position went to Thomas Rettenegger (AUT), who reached 90 metres and 116,9 points (+0:27).

But the Top 3 leading athletes after jumping were not able to oppose the faster skiers coming up behind them.

Jacob Lange (8th start position) demonstrated brilliant speed on the ski track. In the Gundersen's 10 km race, he managed to catch up more than one minute to the leaders and beat his teammate David Mach (4th start position) on the finish line. Philipp Orter from Austria (7th start position) placed third.

On Saturday Christian Deuschl from Austria (98 metres and 123,4 points) took the lead after the Ski Jumping part. Second and third position were occupied by Japanese skiers: Yiya Yamomoto (94,5 metres; 116,3 points and +0:28) and Sakutaro Kobayashi (93,5 metres; 113,3 points and +0:40).

Christian Deuschl was determined to maintain a position in the Top-3 after the Cross-Country race. Especially, because the current leader of the Continental Cup, Jacob Lange, didn't show an ideal jump at 86.5 metres (98,2 points; +1:41). David Mach, known for his skiing strength, had a backlog from over a minute at the start, but managed to overtake the fugitive together with his team mate Lange before the finish line. As the day before, the fastest was Jacob Lange again, while Mach took placed 2nd. Deuschl finished on the third rank. After the finish, the Austrian was visibly upset that he missed the victory, threw a ski pole in the snow and scolded himself.

Therefore, Jacob Lange is one more time the king of Nizhny Tagil, after also scoring a gold double in March 2020 in the Continental Cup final.