The entirety of Nordic Combined Norway was in action on a big weekend that included appearances at the Oslo Skishow, followed by a Norges Cup weekend, all taking place around Holmenkollen and the jumping hills of Midtstua.
Boys and girls started with a first competition day on Thursday, the Oslo Skishow day. The ladies jumped on the K 65 hill with Thea Minyan Bjøseth provind her jumping qualities once more, capturing a head start of 7 seconds on Marte Leinan Lund. Thea Øihaugen held the intermediate third place , 33 seconds after the leader.
Leinan Lund takes ladies’ win
The roller ski race saw Marte Leinan Lund set down a strong pace and also Ida Marie Hagen made up 39 seconds of time behind to be in the contention for the podium. In the end, the race finished after 6 minutes and 14 seconds for Marte Leinan Lund, which meant she crossed the finish line 2.2 seconds earlier than Ida Marie Hagen. Bjørseth salvaged a the third place, finishing 3.8 seconds after the winner.
Riiber dominates on men's side
Due to a postponement of the men’s jumping event on the normal hill to the following weekend, the competition was held as a Mass Start event, which will also be on the World Cup schedule within the Lillehammer Tour in the upcoming season.
Jarl Riiber continued in strong shape and won the 10 km roller-ski race ahead of 2014 Olympic gold medallist Jørgen Graabak. Magnus Krog finished three seconds later, and Truls Johansen, Emil Vilhelmsen and Espen Andersen all crossed the finish line within the first seven seconds after the winner.
Day one of the following Norges Cup weekend had another win for Jarl Riiber in store. This time, he put 51 seconds between himself and runner-up Espen Andersen. Magnus Krog finished one minute and 25 seconds after Riiber and claimed rank three.
Riiber was able to celebrate a start - finish victory after a jump of 106 metres and 137.6 points put him in pole position for the race. Andersen countered with 104 metres but was not able to close his gap of 20 seconds at the start line. Magnus Krog was the fastest skier in the field and improved his sixth position from the jumping event.
Ranks four to six went to Espen Bjørnstad, Einar Lurås Oftebro and Sindre Ure Søtvik, Petter Tande returned to competing with this teammates with a ninth position out of 22 starters.
On the second day, Espen Andersen managed to turn the tables on his teammate and grabbed the victory, 5 seconds ahead of Riiber. Espen Bjørnstad claimed the third place, +0:27 seconds behind Andersen.
In the jumping part, Bjørnstad jumped to the top with 100.5 metres, followed by Andersen with 98.5 and Lars Ivar Skårset with 95.5 metres. For the track this meant a 12-second deficit for Andersen, which he was able to more than make up on the track. Jarl Magnus Riiber impressed with the best roller-skiing time and shot to the second place from position 10, closing a one minute and 26 gap on pole position holder Espen Bjørnstad. Young athletes Leif Torbjørn Næsvold, Einar Lurås Oftebro and Lars Ivar Skårset claimed positions four to six.
Source: fis-ski.com
