The 2018 edition of the men’s Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix features four venues in three different countries, just like in 2017. This time, the journey goes from Oberwiesenthal (GER) to Villach (AUT), Oberstdorf (GER) and Planica (SLO).
A total of six Individual Gundersen events will be held, joined by one Team Sprint to kick the summer off in style in Oberwiesenthal. Here, Czech Republic’s Tomas Portyk and Miroslav Dvorak celebrated a triumph last year and will look to defend their victory against the strong local heroes from Germany, who are joining the event with a strong 10-man squad.
Among them are Nordic Combined stars Johannes Rydzek, who is especially looking forward to his home events in Oberstdorf, and Fabian Rießle but also a group of young guns out for first glory like Martin Hahn, Tim Kopp, Jakob Lange, who returns after a long break due to sickness, David Welde and local hero Terence Weber. Legend and crowd magnet Eric Frenzel will also be part of the event, after announcing that he would go back to representing his childhood club SSV Geyer right before the Grand Prix.
In terms of the Individual Gundersen events, Austria’s Mario Seidl had a strong run last year, winning three of the six individual events held. He missed the Summer Grand Prix victory only because he did not start in the finals in Planica, underlining one of the most important differences to the winter World Cup events: only an athlete taking part in all Summer Grand Prix events can take home the title of overall winner and the biggest part of the 14.000 EUR prize money that the top three athletes of the summer receive for their efforts.
After a mid-week event in Villach, Austria, the first part of the Summer Grand Prix 2017 will be concluded with two events in Oberstdorf where the senior athletes will once more be joined by the FIS Youth Cup. The young Nordic Combined athletes - male and female - will have the first event of their summer season and can look forward to joint prize giving ceremonies with the Summer Grand Prix athletes again.
A week earlier than last year to accommodate the FIS Autumn Meetings, the finals in Planica are scheduled four weeks after the Oberstdorf weekend concludes: from the 20th to the 23rd of September. The newly minted hosts of the 2023 FIS Nordic World Championships will welcome the elite of the Nordic Combined sport again for two individual events, won by Norwegian Nordic Combined great Magnus Moan in the past autumn. Who will enter the winner’s lists of all events is everyone’s guess but one thing is for sure: it will be great to see the Nordic allrounders return to competition mode again.
The program - men’s
OBERWIESENTHAL
Friday 17.08.
18:00 Official training HS 106
20:00 Provisional Competition Round HS 106
Saturday 18.08.
14:30 Trial Round HS 106
15:30 TEAM SPRINT Competition Round HS 106
19:00 TEAM SPRINT 2x 7.5 km cross-country race
Sunday 19.08.
10:00 Trial Round HS 106
11:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 106
14:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
VILLACH
Tuesday 21.08.
17:00 Official training HS 98
19:00 Provisional Competition Round HS 98
Wednesday 22.08.
16:00 Trial Round HS 108
17:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 98
19:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
OBERSTDORF
Thursday 23.08.
18:00 Official training HS 137
following Provisional Competition Round HS 137
Friday 24.08.
18:00 Trial Round HS 137
19:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 137
20:30 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
Saturday 25.08.
18:00 Trial Round HS 137
19:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 137
20:30 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
PLANICA
Friday, 21.09.
15:00 Official Training HS 138
17:00 Provisional Competition Round HS 138
18:00 Official roller ski training
Saturday 22.09.
10:00 Trial Round HS 138
11:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 138
13:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
Sunday 23.09.
10:00 Trial Round HS 138
11:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN Competition Round HS 138
13:00 INDIVIDUAL GUNDERSEN 10 km cross-country race
Quick Facts:
HILLS
Fichtelbergschanze, Oberwiesenthal
HS 106
Villacher Alpenarena HS 98
HS 108
Audi Arena, Oberstdorf
HS 137
Velikanka, Planica Nordic Center
HS 138
TRACKS
Oberwiesenthal
2x 5x 1.5 km roller-ski city loop Team Sprint
6x 1.775 km roller-ski city loop Individual Gundersen
Villach
4x 2.5 km roller-ski loop Villacher Alpenarena
Erdinger Arena/Oberstdorf
6x 1.75 km roller-ski city loop
Planica
5x 2 km roller-ski loop Planica Nordic Center
Source: fis-ski.com
