Team World Champion Fabian Rießle (Breitnau) took third place at the start of the three-day Seefeld-Triple. After a strong performance in the cross-country ski run, the Black Forest had to admit defeat only to the Japanese Akito Watabe and the Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber.
Second-best German was Vinzenz Geiger in seventh place, triple title holder Eric Frenzel and world champion Johannes Rydzek disappointed with eleventh and 18th place.
“I didn’t think it would be enough to make it onto the podium,”said Rießle on ARD television:”All the better that it worked out. I hope the rest of the team will go one better tomorrow, and it’ll be a great weekend.”
Watabe prevailed in the World Championship venue of 2019 after a jump and the cross-country ski”Sprint” over five kilometres in the sprint against jump winner Riiber and celebrated his eleventh World Cup victory. Rießle, sixth after the jumping competition, intercepted the Norwegian Jan Schmid with a strong finish, but he consolidated his lead in the overall World Cup.
On Saturday the second part of the triple is scheduled with a jump (10.45 a. m.) and 10 km of cross-country skiing (15.45 a. m.), the finale will take place on Sunday with two jumps (12.30 a. m.) and 15 km in the cross-country ski run (15.30 a. m.). The residues are carried from passage to passage.