The second Individual Gundersen event in Lillehammer went to Norway’s Magnus Krog. In the end it was just one second that divided the winner of the day from second-placed Fabian Rießle from Germany. The remaining spot on the podium was taken up by Lukas Klapfer from Austria who finished 1.9 seconds later.

It was Austrian Mario Seidl who took the win in the jumping round with a distance of 101 metres. A total of 129.9 points put him 5 seconds ahead of PCR winner Szczepan Kupzcak and 19 seconds ahead of his own teammate Willi Denifl. The Austrian veteran jumped 98 metres, the same distance as Kupczak.

Other strong jumpers like Håvard Klemetsen and Tomas Portyk also ranked in the top ten as well as German superstar Eric Frenzel who found back to a better jumping performance today. Frenzel ranked sixth with a time behind of 22 seconds which definitely put him on the list of top contenders for today.

Athletes to watch for the race were Akito Watabe with +0:30, yesterday’s winner Fabian Rießle on rank ten with +0:43 and fast Norwegian Magnus Krog with +0:48.

The race developed into a true nailbiter as a big group of athletes fighting for the top positions caught up with the leaders Seidl and Kupczak soon into the race and a big leading group of about ten athletes formed, containing Germany’s Eric Frenzel, Björn Kircheisen, Fabian Rießle and Vinzenz Geiger, Austria’s Lukas Klapfer and Bernhard Gruber, Norwegians Jan Schmid, Håvard Klemetsen and Magnus Krog and Japan’s Akito Watabe. The group skied together for long stretches of the race with Krog, Watabe and Klapfer alternating in the lead.

Time and time again, Krog managed to gain a few metres of advantage on his pursuers but he could not make his advantage stick. Only on the last lap did he take the lead in a great maneuver overtaking Rießle in a sharp turn and then skiing away on the following uphill. The German and the Austrian followed close behind but did not manage to gain back those few metres of advantage and in the end, Krog securely skied his second-ever World Cup victory into the finish, the first one on home ground. Behind him Fabian Rießle proved once more that he is one of the strongest sprinters in the field, leaving the third place to Lukas Klapfer who returned to the podium after his first World Cup victory in Schonach last year.

Ranks four to six went to Bernhard Gruber, Eric Frenzel and Akito Watabe. Jan Schmid, Wilhelm Denifl, Björn Kircheisen and Mikko Kokslien completed the Top Ten.

Source: fis-ski.com