Riiber back on top in Lahti
Feb 27, 2022·Nordic Combined
Jarl Magnus Riiber is the winner of the Individual Gundersen competition in Lahti (FIN) today.
Under sunny conditions at the Salpausselkä HS 130 Riiber jumped the furthest distance of the day with 131 meters (140.8 pts) in the morning and took the lead already after the Ski Jumping round. Therefore, he was the first one to start into the 10 km at the Lahti stadium this afternoon.
Rank 2 after jumping went to Ryota Yamamoto from Japan, who landed at 129 meters (138.7 pts) and went into the course only 8 seconds after the Norwegian.
Franz-Josef Rehrl (125 mts, 131 pts) placed third with a 39 second backlog to the leader.
Overall World Cup leader Johannes Lamparter from Austria (125 mts, 127.2 pts) placed 4th and started 54 seconds behind Riiber.
Only those four athletes went go into the race within the first minute, therefore the pursuers, including strong skier Vinzenz Geiger (122.7 pts, +1:12 min), had to work hard to catch top favorite Riiber before the finish line.
The Norwegian ran a lonely race at the top, keeping his pursuers at a safe distance at all time.
Meanwhile, Yamamoto couldn't keep up the fast pace and was caught by Rehrl and Lamparter after 2.5km. Behind him, Vinzenz Geiger reduced the gap to Riiber to 57.8 seconds and caught up with the chasing group after 5 km.
While Yamamoto had to let go, the gap between Lamparter, Rehrl and Geiger on Riiber remained constant at 40 seconds.
After 7.5 km it was clear that Riiber could not be caught, so it was now a question of the podium places. Rehrl couldn't keep up with the fast pace of the German and the Austrian and fell back in the last lap. Meanwhile, Geiger and Lamparter went into the home stretch together and delivered an exciting finish sprint, which the German (+27.1 sec) narrowly won. Lamparter (+27.4 sec) took the third rank.
Local hero Ilkka Herola from Finland had the fastest skiing time with 22:31.8 min and managed to place 9th in the end, after being on rank 23 after Ski Jumping.
Results: Men Individual Gundersen LH/10 km SJ – 27.2.22
Overall results: Men Individual Gundersen LH/10 km – 27.2.22
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