Germany’s Eric Frenzel moved into second place in the table of all-time Nordic Combined World Cup victories as he returned to winning ways in Trondheim.
The 27-year-old overall leader won all three legs of the Seefeld Triple at the end of January but was knocked off the top of the podium by two home favourites as the season moved to Norway.
Eighteen-year-old Jarl Magnus Riiber was victorious in Oslo before double Olympic champion Jørgen Graabak took the honours in the first Trondheim event yesterday, but there was to be no stopping Frenzel today.
It was his 29th World Cup victory which moved him above his jumping coach Ronny Ackermann and into second on the all-time list.
Only Finland’s Hannu Manninen, a gold medallist from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is above him with 48 victories to his name.
Frenzel, the Sochi 2014 10 kilometres/normal hill Olympic champion, completed his 10km ski today in a time of 24 min 28.5 sec to come home ahead of Japan’s Akito Watabe and Graabak respectively.
It was Watabe who led after the jumping phase, registering a leap of 137.5 metres for 137.2 points.
That gave him a 27 second advantage over Frenzel for the cross-country, with the German recording the second best jump of the day – 134m for 130.5 points.
Watabe skied a strong race for the opening 5km, but Frenzel passed him shortly afterwards and pulled away from his rival.
The Japanese competitor has now finished second six times this season and remains second overall with 764 points behind Frenzel who has 911.
Germany’s Fabian Rießle, who has two World Cup wins this season but was 25th today, is third with 649 points.
The Nordic Combined World Cup will now move to Finland, with events in Lahti on February 19 and 21.
The country will also host a World Cup in Kuopio on February 23.
- By Dan Palmer republished with permission insidethegames.biz