New faces on the large-hill podium in Innsbruck/Seefeld

Bernhard Gruber proved to be the best jumper on Innsbruck’s HS 130 Bergisel hill and lead the starting field with a jump of 126 metres and a total of 123 points. Jumping sensation Christoph Bieler followed with 124.5 metres and 119.8 points which meant 13 seconds of time disadvantage for the roller-ski race which was held at Seefeld. Strong cross-country skier Harald Lemmerer surprised with an excellent jump of 124 metres and ranked third at the intermediate point already. He started 16 seconds after Gruber in the roller-ski race.

Ranks four to six went to youngsters Fabian Steindl, Martin Fritz and Mario Seidl and the team veterans Willi Denifl and Mario Stecher had to be satisfied with the intermediate positions of eighth and thirteenth respectively.

On the cross-country track in nearby TRIPLE venue Seefeld, the ninth-fastest time was enough for Bernhard Gruber to ski an undisputed win into the finish. He crossed the finish line 13.2 seconds ahead of Harald Lemmerer who took rank two away from veterean Christoph Bieler and put a good 5 seconds between him and third-ranked Alexander Brandner who finished 18.3 seconds after Gruber with the second-fastest time of the day. Marco Pichlmayer, Mario Seidl and Christoph Bieler finished fourth, fifth and sixth. The fastest man of the day was talent Bernhard Flaschberger who needed 24:12.3 for the 10 kilometres and skied into a final eleventh position, coming from rank 22.

On Friday, the national team athletes took a trip tofrom Innsbruck to Vienna with a special train, the ÖSV railjet, giving journalists and media the chance for pre-season interviews before being equipped with the official new ÖSV outfit at the new Vienna main station.

Generation change also in Tschagguns

Another superb performance by Bernhard Gruber brought him the second national title within three days at Tschagguns/Partenen but first, it was Lukas Greiderer’s time to shine. The 21-year-old who claimed his first Summer Grand Prix podium earlier this summer took the intermediate lead after jumping with 103.5 metres and 127 points.

He was followed by Fabian Steindl who landed at 101.5 metres and Bernhard Flaschberger also set himself up in a very promising position as third with 102 metres. Steindl and Flaschberger started 18 and 20 second after Greiderer. Philipp Kreuzer took an intermediate fourth rank before veterans Christoph Bieler and Bernhard Gruber lurked in a shared fifth position, 24 seconds after the leader Greiderer.

The roller-ski race saw a lot of position changes until the final result was Gruber ahead of Flaschberger and Greiderer in the end. Bernhard Gruber grabbed his second title 6.6 seconds ahead of Flaschberger who held his own among his older teammates. Jumping-winner Greiderer followed some time after the first two athletes and crossed the finish line 30.7 seconds after Gruber.

Alexander Brandner, Harald Lemmerer, Mario Stecher and Marco Pichlmayer had a close fight for rank four with Brandner having the best end ahead of Lemmerer, Stecher and Pichlmayer who all finished within 2 seconds of each other. Marco Pichlmayer also was the fastest skier on the track with 22:25.0 and improved from rank 14.