The first name in the 2016/17 winner’s list in Nordic Combined is Johannes Rydzek. The 24-year-old captured the victory by 34.1 seconds over runner-up Eric Frenzel. The podium was completed by Jørgen Graabak from Norway who finished 45.6 seconds later.

Akito Watabe took a close victory over Johannes Rydzek in the jumping round with the Japanese landing at 141.5 metres. With a total of 145 points, Watabe just had 0.2 points more than Germany’s Rydzek who shone with very good 140.5 metres. For the track, this meant the two athletes were only separared by one second at the start. Finnish youngster Eero Hirvonen continued in great shape after his victory at the Finnish national last weekend and captured the intermediate third position with 138 metres and 140.8 points which put him 17 seconds behind Watabe.

Hot candidates for the victory and podium results were also Olympic champion Jørgen Graabak who held the fourth position after the jump with a time behind of 24 seconds and Björn Kircheisen. The veteran had shown stable, solid jumping from the first jump yesterday and achieved 132.5 metres today, putting him one minute and five seconds behind Watabe. German teammates Frenzel and Rießle followed on positions eight and nine, +1:13 and +1:37 behind the leader.

Watabe and Rydzek skied together for the first part of the race but it became clear quite quickly that Watabe was not able to hold on to Rydzek. From this moment on, the first race turned into a one-man show. Rydzek went away from Watabe, skied a lonely race at the top and was never in the slightest danger to lose the first victory of the season. Even with slightly reduced speed in the end, Rydzek still set the second-fastest racing time and finished over half a minute earlier than his teammate Eric Frenzel.

Frenzel skied a courageous race behind the leading duo, setting the fastest-cross country time of 26:52.8. At first, he was together with teammate Björn Kircheisen and Mario Seidl and on the last lap, the trio caught up with Jørgen Graabak and Eero Hirvonen. The Finn and The Norwegian had held the positions three and four in the beginning but overtook Akito Watabe by the half point of the race. Especially the newly minted Finnish champion Hirvonen surprised with a strong performance and cheered on by his home crowd, he finally brought a fourth position into the finish, the first Top Ten rank of his career. Graabak had to let Frenzel pass but was the only Norwegian with a position in the Top 20 in the end.

The rest of the Top Ten positions went to Mario Seidl, Björn Kircheisen, Akito Watabe, Fabian Rießle, Philipp Orter and David Pommer.

Source: fis-ski.com