With a stellar performance on the track, Austrian Berni Gruber took the win in today’s Individual Gundersen event in Val di Fiemme. Gruber left World Cup leader Eric Frenzel behind on the very soft and difficult track and finished a whopping 37.5 seconds ahead of the German. An utterly exhausted Jørgen Graabak came through with the third rank, 52.2 seconds behind Gruber. 

Frenzel had taken the lead after the first part of the event with 133.5 metres, by far the longest jump of the day. 142.3 points meant 21 seconds of advantage on World Champion Gruber who hit a 129.5 metre jump, giving him a total of 137.1 points. Japanese youngster Takehiro Watanabe continued with his strong jumping performance this winter and ranked third with 127.5 metres and 132.1 points which meant 41 seconds to make up on the track.

The jumping competition produced a really interesting start list for the race with many contenders for the podium ranks. Fast Germans Johannes Rydzek and Fabian Rießle ranked sixth and eighth, +1:01 and +1:10 behind their teammate Frenzel. But also the Norwegian team was out in force again with Magnus Krog following at +1:16, Jørgen Graabak at +1:28 and Magnus Moan at +1:42.

As all signs were set towards Eric Frenzel's eighth season victory, spectators hardly believed their eyes when Gruber closed the 21-seconds gap already on the first lap, passed Frenzel and went away from the German. With great skis, the Austrian made up his loss of a podium place in the Team Sprint yesterday and powered through the deep and soft snow in Lago di Tesero. 

Eric Frenzel ultimately lost a total of almost one minute to the Austrian. For Frenzel it almost got tight again the last lap as the big group of fast skiers Graabak, Krog, Klapfer and Rießle made up some time but not enough to endanger the German champion in the end. Out of the big group, Graabak and Klapfer managed a small gap to the others but only Graabak came through to claim the third rank, collapsing into the snow, utterly exhausted. Teammate Magnus Krog ended up on the fourth place, Lukas Klapfer on five, Fabian Rießle on six. 

Final Results
Ski Jumping Results

Source: fis-ski.com