ummer Grand Prix winner Johannes Rydzek continues to display a superb shape prior to the season 2014/15. At the German national championships held at Hinterzarten this past weekend, Rydzek claimed the individual title as well as the victory in the Team Sprint together with his Bavarian teammate Jakob Lange. Lange also walked away with two gold medals by claiming the individual junior title.

Saturday’s individual competition started with a jumping victory for Wolfgang Bösl on Hinterzarten’s HS 108 Rothausschanze. Last year’s COC runner-up landed the only jump over 100 metres with his try of 101 metres which gave him a total of 137 points and 16 seconds of headstart on Eric Frenzel who had landed at 99.5 metres. The intermediate third rank was taken by Tobias Simon who delivered a nice jump of 99.5 metres and started another four seconds afer Frenzel. 

Philipp Blaurock, Tobias Haug and Tino Edelmann followed on ranks four to six and Johannes Rydzek claimed an intermediate seventh position but only 42 seconds behind leader Bösl. Future junior winner Jakob Lange ranked 13th at the intermediate point, one minute and six seconds behind Bösl. 

In the 10 kilometre roller-ski race in the centre of Hinterzarten, Germany’s Nordic Combined athletes proved their class to the spectators present. Serial winner Johannes Rydzek overtook all other athletes and finally finished first after a good fight with Olympic bronze medallist Fabian Rießle who crossed the finish line only 0.7 seconds after Rydzek. Eric Frenzel had a weaker day on the track with only the 10th best roller-ski time but still managed to hold on to a third rank with a time behind of 2.9 seconds in the finish. Edelmann, Kircheisen and Bösl ranked four, five and six in the final results table. 

The fastest man on the track was Manuel Faißt with 21:39.6 for the 10 kilometers which helped him improved from a 15th rank after jumping to a final seventh position. The most successful junior was Jakob Lange who also was the second-fastest athlete on the track (21:42.9). He finished eighth in the total results table. For the junior ranking, this meant he took the title with a 14.7 lead on Tom Lubitz. Dominik Schwaar came in third, 39.9 seconds after Lange. 

On Sunday, the Team Sprint was on schedule and the spectators saw a repeat performance of the champions Jakob Lange and Johannes Rydzek who started for the Team of Bavaria. They beat out the teams from Saxony and Baden-Württemberg by 5.5 seconds. Fabian Rießle/Manuel Faißt and Eric Frenzel/Björn Kircheisen shared the second place as it was impossible to decide who finished first of the two teams. 

After the jumping part, Rießle/Faisst had been in the lead with two jumps of 100 and 101.5 metres, accumulating 251.5 points which meant a head start of 3 seconds of Kircheisen/Frenzel who jumped 98.5 and 103 metres. Lange/Ryzek followed only 5 seconds later (99 and 102 metres, 248 p.) which promised a tight race on the roller-ski course. 

With 34:40.2 for the 2x 7.5 kilomeres, the Bavarians proved to be the fastest team on the track and took the top spot away from Faißt and Rießle as well as Kircheisen and Frenzel. In the final ranking, Edelmann/Dünkel of Team Thurigia ended up on rank four, Saxony II with Schwaar/Lubitz on five and Geiger/Bösl who were also starting for Bavaria on six.

Source: fis-ski.com