Dhe German Nordic athletes won silver in the team competition at the World Championships in Planica, Slovenia. The German quartet around Eric Frenzel, Vinzenz Geiger, Johannes Rydzek and final runner Julian Schmid had to admit defeat only to the team from Norway after a jump from the large hill and a highly exciting relay race on the cross-country ski run. Austria took bronze.
“It was very exciting. I don’t like the last 400 meters,” said national coach Hermann Weinbuch on ARD and announced that he wanted to protest the result. The Norwegian anchor had prevented Schmid from overtaking him on the inside a few hundred meters from the finish. “It was on the verge of being unsportsmanlike and should be investigated.”
Nevertheless, one could be “very happy with the silver medal,” said Frenzel, who, with his 18th medal at the Nordic World Ski Championships, became the sole record holder for men and overtook Norwegian cross-country skier Björn Dählie.
Overall, it was the fourth medal in the fourth competition for the German combined team at the title fights in Slovenia. Previously, both Schmid in the men’s singles and Nathalie Armbruster in the women’s and the mixed relay had won silver.
After the jump, the German team was 23 seconds behind the leading Norwegians. Starting runner Frenzel completely made up for the gap, Geiger and Rydzek didn’t let their fellow Norwegian runners go after that. On the final lap, Schmid then ran for the medals together with top star Jarl Magnus Riiber (Norway) and overall World Cup leader Johannes Lamparter (Austria).
:quality(70):focal(1822x1345:1832x1355)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/liberation/BDDEQLV6KRFXXC7BFLBLDXXCDE.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
