The last night of the season 2015/16 held one more chance for some of the Nordic Combined athletes to win as the the newly-devised Nordic Combined Awards were held for the first time to honour outstanding performances and moments of the past season.

As during the winter, Eric Frenzel was the big winner of the night, although he faced stiff competition from Norwegian shooting star Jarl Riiber. While Frenzel took home the „Athlete of the Year“ award beating out eternal rival Akito Watabe from Japan, teammate Fabian Rießle and Norway’s Jørgen Graabak, Riiber took the clear win in the „Rookie of the Year“ category that recognizes outstanding performances by young athletes who had their breakthrough on the World Cup in this winter. 

Riiber took the win in the category that had Japan’s Takehiro Watanabe and German Manuel Faißt as fellow nominees. Due to his shoulder injury from Lahti, the 18-year-old could not be on location but sent a video message to greet his fellow athletes, the teams and guests. 

Both Riiber and Frenzel were nominated in the „Moment of the Year“ category again: Frenzel for his astonishing win against all odds on the last day of the TRIPLE and Riiber for his „Riibergate“ weekend in Lahti that had him give away a victory by taking the wrong way into the finish and dislocating his shoulder during the Team Sprint race the following day. Frenzel won by the majority of one vote in the end.

Jury spokesperson Johannes Markus Stettner who represented the international media jury casing the votes and Audi representative Florian Gerold presented the champions with their prizes: A Go-Pro camera sponsored by Viessmann for the „Athlete of the Year“, a slackline-set by Viessmann and the participation in one Audi Driving Experience for the „Rookie of the Year“ and two VIP tickets for a Champions’ League match of the FC Bayern Munich for the „Moment of the Year“, powered by Audi.

Source: fis-ski.com