North.

The German combined Olympic champions finished empty handed at the Black Forest Cup in Schonach after a weak jump. Local hero Fabian Rießle (Breitnau) was the best DSV starter at the start of the last World Cup weekend, not exceeding seventh place. The Japanese Akito Watabe, who has been the overall World Cup winner since last week, celebrated his seventh victory of the season.

Watabe won 6.3 seconds ahead of Jarl Magnus Riiber (Norway), the Austrian Bernhard Gruber (+8.5) came third. Rießle, who had won three races in a row, was 50.7 seconds behind.

Second-best German was Vinzenz Geiger (Oberstdorf) in tenth place. The three-time Olympic champion Eric Frenzel (Oberwiesenthal), who would have won the Black Forest Cup for the third time in a row and could thus take personal possession of the hiking trophy, only reached 18th place. Record world champion Johannes Rydzek (Oberstdorf) landed in 22nd place. Björn Kircheisen (Johanngeorgenstadt) came 36th in his penultimate career competition.

After an extremely moderate jumping in difficult and constantly changing wind conditions from a German point of view, Rießle was the best DSV starter to start the 10 km cross-country ski run from 14th place 1’15” behind Riiber. However, he could only make up ground at the beginning in the snow, which was deep and slushy in springlike temperatures.

The season finale on Sunday will be the last individual competition in “marathon format”. After two jumps (10.00 o’clock) it goes for 15 km (13.00 o’clock) into the run.