WJulian Schmid was irresistible every time, again none of his companions could follow – but this time one was already far ahead: With another impressive mileage, the currently best German combined athlete stormed onto the podium on the second day at the World Cup opener in Ruka, Finland. One day after his first career victory, the man from Oberstdorf was only beaten by Norway’s top star Jarl Magnus Riiber, who reached a milestone with his 50th triumph.
“My sprint was really good, I can be very satisfied,” said 23-year-old Schmid, who was on the podium for the third time in his career – for the second time within 24 hours. Schmid thus claimed the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader, “and I’m really happy about that.”
Exception confirmed
After the jump, Schmid was the best German in eighth place and underlined his exceptional form in the ten-kilometer cross-country ski run. In the sprint of the chasing group, the team Olympic silver medalist was clearly the strongest and crossed the finish line 10.4 seconds behind the sovereign winner Riiber. Third place went to his compatriot Jens Luraas Oftebro.
Riiber made a mistake on the hill at the start on Friday and only finished 14th. On Saturday, too, the jumping for the overall World Cup winner of the past four winters didn’t quite go as planned – but third place was good enough to dominate in the run. “It is great. There was a lot of pressure on me. I’m still a bit away from my old form,” said Riiber.
Already last winter he had replaced the Finn Hannu Manninen (48 World Cup victories) at the top of the “all-time” best list, in which Eric Frenzel (43 victories) is in third place. Riiber, who is only 25 years old, will probably be a long way off in the “All Time” ranking.
The Oberstdorf Olympic champions Vinzenz Geiger (ninth) and Johannes Rydzek (tenth) were still in the top 10 on Saturday after a weak jump. Manuel Faißt (Baiersbronn) was 13th, record world champion Frenzel (Geyer) had to settle for 17th place. This Sunday (11:00 a.m./3:15 p.m. CET) there is an individual competition in the rare mass start. First, the entire field goes over 10 km in the cross-country ski run, only then is the jumping on.
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