Status: 02/26/2023 4:05 p.m
Germany’s combined athletes won silver in the first team mixed competition in World Cup history. Dominator Norway grabbed gold.
The quartet from Norway ran to a lone start-finish victory on Sunday (02/26/2023). While the world championship title was practically awarded after the jumping, the fight for silver between Germany and Austria turned out to be exciting.
Germany’s final runner Julian Schmid already felt Johannes Lamparter’s breath, but brought second place to the finish line with a tactically strong race and celebrated the third silver medal in the third combined event together with Vinzenz Geiger, Jenny Nowak and Nathalie Armbruster.
Violinist with a lightning start
Germany’s starting runner Vinzenz Geiger had a large share of silver. After jumping, he left the track in third place. He immediately put his foot down, flew over the track and after just one kilometer passed the Japanese Yamamoto. The man from Oberstdorf went at a hell of a pace on his first lap and went full throttle again in the final sprint. However, he was not really able to close the gap to the Norwegian Jens Luraas Oftebro until the first change. National coach Hermann Weinbuch revealed: “It’s not our goal to catch the Norwegian, but we want to get away from Austria.”
Geiger was supposed to give Jenny Nowak as much lead as possible – and it worked. Nowak started her 2.5 kilometer lap in second place, 15 seconds ahead of Austria, and extended her lead to more than 30 seconds.
Norway ran a lonely race ahead. Ida Marie Hagen significantly extended the lead and made it clear that gold would be unattainable for the other nations that day.
Austria is getting closer
Germany was 41.5 seconds behind Norway and 30 seconds ahead of Austria when she switched to Nathalie Armbruster. The 17-year-old student, who won silver in the individual, lost only ten seconds to Austria despite a small wobble and sent anchor Schmid onto the track with a lead of 20 seconds over Johannes Lamparter.
Won her second silver in the mixed relay: Nathalie Armbruster
Image: Daniel Karmann/dpa
Schmid, who had been in good form for weeks, paced the race very well and didn’t get nervous when Lamparter came ten seconds closer in the first kilometer. He picked up speed in the last meters and pulled the tooth out of his opponent, who was still the leader in the World Cup.
Displacement after several falls
The competition had a stale aftertaste on the hill and put the Nordic athletes’ patience to the test. The jump winner was only determined after almost three hours, because the jump had to be stopped at the first attempt.
The outrun had been incorrectly prepared after a lot of fresh snow and had caused numerous falls in the practice and in the competition. Volunteers prepared the “runway” again and so the restart followed 90 minutes later, in which the German combined athletes did not deliver their best performances. Jenny Nowak (88 m), Vinzenz Geiger (94 m), Julian Schmid (94.5 m) and Nathalie Armbruster (91 m) finished third and were already 25 seconds behind Norway.
Weinbuch: “Homework not done”
National coach Hermann Weinbuch sharply criticized the organizers of the Nordic combined at the World Championships in Planica. He accused them of “misjudgment” and said: “The homework has not been done. It was very dangerous and grossly negligent, something like that shouldn’t happen at a World Cup.” This is a catastrophe for Nordic combined, the experienced trainer vented his anger.
Hermann Weinbuch, national coach of the Nordic Combined.
Image: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
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Source: sportschau.de