Nordic skiing: combiners save second place in Norway’s victory

Three weeks before the Olympic Games, the German combiners are still looking for their top form. The relay with World Champion Johannes Rydzek, Olympic Champion Eric Frenzel, Fabian Rießle and Vinzenz Geiger saved at least second place on Sunday at the World Cup in Chaux-Neuve (France) and prevented the worst team result in seven years.

The gap to clearly superior rivals Norway was 13.1 seconds, and the DSV quartet also benefited from Austria’s disqualification.

The “dominators” of the pre-season had already fallen behind expectations on Saturday in the singles, the sixth place by Rießle was still the best result.

Last winter, a DSV athlete had been on the podium in each of the 23 individual competitions, and now, for the third time this season, the team of national coach Hermann Weinbuch, which was disappointing above all on the hill, has been left without a podium finish.

The only German winner of the weekend was Björn Kircheisen. The 34-year-old won the last German Olympic ticket on Saturday with 15th place in the singles and will take part in Pyeongchang (9th place). till 25. February) will be the first combination player in history to participate in winter games for the fifth time.

In the team competition on Sunday, especially on the hill, things didn’t go well. The German team initially only finished fifth, before Austria was downgraded from second to seventh place due to a disqualification of Wilhelm Denifl.

In the cross-country ski run, the DSV quartet passed Finland and France at least, and final runner Geiger saved an impressive series: Since January 2011, Germany has never been worse than second place in all World Cup relay teams. The Norwegians, who also won the second season of the winter, were unbeatable, third place went to Finland.