COC: Seidl wins, Skoglund skis from 39th to podium

While Mario Seidl celebrated his second Individual victory of the Continental Cup weekend in Eisenerz (AUT), Aleksander Skoglund impressed with a crazy comeback on cross-country skis.

With the furthest distance of the day of 107.5 meters, Seidl was already in the lead after the Ski Jumping round on the HS 109. 
The Austrian collected 138.8 points and was the first one to start into the 10 km cross-country race in the afternoon.

Rank 2 after jumping went to Jonathan Graebert from Germany with 103 meters (122.8 pts), who went into the course 1:04 min after Seidl. 
Simon Mach (103 m, 122.7 pts) placed third and started the race together with his German team mate 1:04 min behind the leader.

While Seidl kept his pursuers at a safe distance in the beginning, a crazy catch-up race started happening behind him. 
Fabio Obermeyr, who placed 10th after jumping 1:20 min behind, caught up to Graebert and Mach, who couldn’t keep up with the high speed and fell back. 
Meanwhile Overall COC leader Aleksander Skoglund, who placed 39th after jumping, 2:19 min behind, also showed a fantastic performance on cross-country skis.

The Norwegian left opponent after opponent behind and ran the fastest skiing time of the day.

Although Obermeyr tried to close the gap to his team mate, he wasn’t able to catch him before the finish line. 
Therefore, Seidl celebrated his second COC victory of the weekend, ahead of Obermeyr (+14 sec) on rank two. 
Skoglund (+33.5 sec) went into the home stretch together with Austrian Manuel Einkemmer (+34.8 sec) and was still able to show a strong finish sprint, although he had already fought his way up 37 places over 10km. He beat the Austrian narrowly by 1.3 sec, taking third place.

With his incredible performance, Skoglund defended his Overall Continental Cup lead and the green bib.

SJ Results: IG HS109/10km, Men - 18.2.24, Eisenerz
Official Results: IG HS109/10km, Men - 18.2.24, Eisenerz
Overall Standings: COC Men 2023/24