Happy winners at the first day of
the FIS Youth Grand Prix - NordicFocus
With exciting competitions in five different categories,
the first day of the FIS Youth Grand Prix in Oberstdorf
concluded with Finnish, Slovenian, Austrian and
German victories.
Lea Zu"fle, Kaja Urbanija and Timna Moser
win the ladies events
Kaja Coz Urbanija and Timna Moser as well as Lea
Zu"fle in the K30 competition can call themselves
the first winners of Ladies Nordic Combined.
Lea Zu"fle beat her four competitors in the
competition from the K30 hill where she ranked an
intermediate third but overtook Finland’s Emilia
Sorvisto and Pinja Koivisto on the track. Sorvisto
and Zu"fle sprinted for the finish line with
the German having the better end and winning with
a margin of only 0.3 seconds.
In the Ladies event from competitors born between
2000 and 2003, Slovenian Kaja Coz Urbanija defended
her intermediate lead from the ski jumping part
where she had landed at a strong 56 metres, giving
her 106.5 points and only 1 second of head start
on Russian athletes Glafira Noskova who jumped 55
metres. Lucille Morat from France who jumped 54
metres and started 24 seconds after Urbanija, held
on to her third rank throughout the whole 4 kilometre
race. Slovenian Maja Drinovec showed a strong performance
on the track, skiing into second position and making
it into a Slovenian double victory in the ladies
event. The fastest lady on the track was Norwegian
Ida Marie Hagen with 10:21.3 who improved a 14th
rank after jumping into a final fifth one.
The 1999-1996 category saw a clear start-finish
victory by Austrian Timna Moser who had already
impressed with great jumps on Oberstdorf’s K58 hill.
With 55 metres, she started 19 seconds ahead of
German Jasmin Buchmann and 32 seconds ahead of Russian
Alena Sutiagina.
In the race, Buchmann was not able to hold onto
her second rank and had to let Norway’s Silje Opseth
and Russian Sutiagina pass in the fight for the
podium. Opseth and Sutiagina battled it out on the
track with the better end for the Norwegian who
finished about 4 seconds earlier than the Russian
in the end. The fastest lady in this group was Opseth’s
Norwegian teammate Tonje Bakke who needed 10:04.0
for the 4 kilometres and skied from rank 8 to rank
6.
Finnish domination continues in the male categories
Like in the last year, the Finnish athletes dominated
the boys’ competitions. In both the S13 and S14
categories, the first two places wen to Finland:
Perttu Reponen took the win in the S13 class, followed
by Waltteri Karhumaa and German Lenard Kersting.
The S14 class went to Rasmus A"hta"va"
ahead of Otto Niittykoski and Jonas Ja"ckle
from Germany.
After the jump, Perttu Reponen was already in the
lead with a good effort of 58 metres, giving him
115.6 points and a headstart of 17 seconds on Austrian
runner-up Stefan Rettenegger. Reponen’s teammate
Waltteri Karhumaa ranked third at the intermediate
point with 55 metres and 106.7 points which meant
36 seconds of time disadvantage for the 4 kilometre
roller-ski track.
During the race, Reponen also showed the third best
roller-ski time on the 4 kilometres and skied to
an undisputed victory 41.2 seconds ahead of his
teammate Waltteri Karhumaa who overtook Stefan Rettenegger
to climb up one spot on the final podium. With the
second-fastest time, Lenard Kersting skied from
an intermediate 12th rank to his final third position.
Norwegian Brage Buseth Hammerstad impressed with
the best cross-country performance (10:17.7 for
the 4 km), taking him from a 27th to a final 9th
rank.
The jumping part of the fourteen-year old boys had
also been in Finnish hands. The eventual winner
A"hta"va" set 98 metres and went
out on the track with a seven-second headstart on
Rok Oblak (57 metres, 113.3 p.) from Slovenia. Otto
Niittykoski ranked third with 56 metres and 111
points. He started into the race 16 seconds after
A"hta"va" and claimed the second
rank by setting the fastest time on the track (15:25.8
for the 6 km), overtaking Rok Oblak who went back
to a final 26th. Jonas Ja"ckle conquered his
third rank by setting the fourth fastest time, roller-skiing
onto the podium from an eleventh rank.
