An amazing finish for the German team on the last day of the Summer Grand Prix 2015 in Oberstdorf. Fabian Rießle finally made it to the top step of the podium and took his first individual victory on the highest level of Nordic Combined. Teammate Johannes Rydzek had to concede defeat today but was allowed to return to the top of the podium as winner of the overall Summer Grand Prix standings by crossing the finish line 1.5 seconds behind Rießle. Japan’s Akito Watabe scored two third ranks: 3.6 seconds after Rießle and also in the overall ranking.

The ski jumping round saw a strong performance by Watabe again, putting the Japanese at the head of the field with a nice jump of 132.5 metres and a total of 145.1 points. With a head start of 12 seconds on Maxime Laheurte, the two athletes stayed together for the first laps of the race until a big chasing group consisting of Eric Frenzel (third after the jump with 130 metres and a time behind of 30 seconds), Berhard Gruber (+42 seconds, sixth after the jump), Manuel Faißt (5th, +0:42) and Johannes Rydzek (19th after his jump of 124.5 metres) caught up with the two.

Also riding the „fast train“ were Björn Kircheisen, Vinzenz Geiger who moved into the top group from ranks 20 and and 18. In the course of the race, the group got smaller and smaller as Tomas Portyk, Wolfgang Bösl and Taihei Kato who had ranked fourth, sixth and eighth and Tobias Simon (9th) had to let go of the faster skiers.

In the end, Fabian Rießle was the strongest and finally claimed his long-desired individual victory, narrowly beating out Rydzek. With this victory, Rießle edged Akito Watabe out in the overall ranking, so that the Japanese claimed the third place of the day and in the overall ranking.

Ranks four, five and six of the day went to Bernhard Gruber, Maxime Laheurte and Björn Kircheisen. Local hero Vinzenz Geiger from Oberstdorf set a career best with his eighth position.