North.

Combiner Fabian Rießle celebrates his second victory of the season in Trondheim, Eric Frenzel is disqualified. Akito Watabe expands his lead in the overall World Cup

When Fabian Rießle celebrated his second victory of the season with a primal scream, Eric Frenzel was a fan at the edge of the track and cheered. After a rare disqualification for him, the Olympic champion from Saxony experienced only as a spectator, as Rießle left the entire competition behind him at the World Cup in Trondheim with an energy performance and climbed the podium on which Frenzel had been at the top 24 hours before.

“That was hard work. I’m really happy that I won the race. I had to close the gap quickly, which worked out well,”said Rießle after an act of strength. The team Olympic champion from Breitnau went into cross-country skiing after a good jump to 126.0 m from tenth place and finished six of the ten kilometres to the top. On the home stretch, Rießle had the greatest power in a trio and outpaced the Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber as well as the Finnish Eero Hirvonen.

“Fabian is incredibly clever. He has a lot of experience and still a good form. He is very fast on the home stretch”, said national coach Hermann Weinbuch after the seventh German victory of the winter:”It was again very exciting. When you see the power and dynamism, I’m still thrilled.”

Frenzel experienced the decision this time only from the edge of the track. Shortly before his jump, the Saxon was taken off the jump because his suit did not meet the specifications “Eric had the same suit as yesterday. There was a new controller there, he measured differently and it was barely enough. It was three millimeters too much at the crotch,”said Weinbuch.

The second best DSV starter was Björn Kircheisen (Johanngeorgenstadt) in ninth place. Record world champion Johannes Rydzek (Oberstdorf) had to make do with eleventh place despite a strong race to catch up from rank 34. For team Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger (Oberstdorf) it was even enough for position 22.

The Japanese rider Akito Watabe, who is the overall leader of the World Cup, finished fifth and his closest rival Jan Schmid (Norway) was only 15th. In the fight for the crystal ball, Watabe is now clearly ahead of Schmid (997) with 1175 points four matches to go. Two Germans follow in Rießle (791) and Rydzek (706), while defending champion Frenzel (534) remains seventh.

We continue with two weekends in Germany. The Saxonian Klingenthal will start the race from Saturday, before the season finale in Schonach begins:”This will be another highlight,”said Frenzel, for whom the Klingenthal races will be a home game.