Austrian youngster Fabian Steindl has once more proven that he is one of the best jumpers in the starting field of Nordic Combined. With a strong jump of 137 metres and a total of 126.3 points, Steindl won the Provisional Competition round ahead of teammate Christoph Bieler who landed at 135.5 points. In third position was Japanese local hero Yoshito Watabe who jumped 128 metres.

Should the PCR have to be used over the weekend, Bieler and Watabe will be 16 seconds and one minute and two seconds behind Steindl. After the big gap between the first two athletes and the next ones, the rest of the Top Ten was starting within thirty seconds of each other. Manuel Faißt was back with a good performance and grabbed the intermediate fouth position (126.5 m, 109.2 p., +1:08). Also having good jumps were Tomas Portyk, Fabian Rießle, Taihei Kato, Tino Edelmann and Akito Watabe who grabbed the rest of the Top Ten positions. Norway’s Haavard Klemetsen was ranking eighth but was having a weaker jump compared to his usual superb jumping performances.

The stronger skiers including Björn Kircheisen, Bernhard Gruber, Johannes Rydzek and Mikko Kokslien will have to deal with quite some big time disadvantages should the PCR have to be used, ranging from +1:56 to +3:07. As there were only 45 athletes on the start, everybody will be starting in the two competitions this weekend.

Source: fis-ski.com