Haavard Klemetsen wins Summer
Grand Prix in Villach
The next individual win in the Summer Grand Prix
2013 goes to Haavard Klemetsen. The Norwegian arrived
in the finish 0,7 seconds before his closest adversary,
Bernhard Gruber from Austria. The two were joined
on the podium by Klemetsen's teammate Jan Schmid
who finished 1,5 seconds behind the winner.
After having also won yesterday's PCR, Haavard Klemetsen
came out on top of the ski jumping result once again.
The Norwegian jumped 94 metres which gave him 123,6
points and 3 seconds advantage on Germany's Tobias
Haug who surprised spectators and fans with a very
good jump of 94 metres (122,8 p.). Taihei Kato from
Japan also jumped 94 metres which meant 122,4 points
and 5 seconds of time behind after Klemetsen.
Ranks four, five and six were divided between Bernhard
Gruber, Bjo"rn Kircheisen and Jan Schmid who
started only 16, 16 and 20 seconds after Klemetsen
which especially made strong skier Kircheisen into
a top favourite for today's win. Good performances
by Akito Watabe, Wolfgang Bo"sl, Tomas Portyk
and Evgeniy Klimov rounded out the Top Ten who all
started in a time difference of only 28 seconds.
On the whole, 24 athletes were starting within one
minute which promised a tight and exciting cross-country
race. Only one incident marred today's great jumping
competition: young Austrian local hero Mario Seidl
had the longest jump of the day with 98 metres but
wasn't able to stand his try. With the point deduction
for his fall, he ranked only 32nd after ski jumping
but at least did not sustain any injuries.
In the exciting roller ski race in front of about
400 spectators, a leading group of five athletes
quickly formed. Klemetsen, Gruber, Schmid, Watabe
and Kircheisen worked together to keep the followers
at bay and succeeded with this except for strong
roller skier Magnus Moan who worked his way to the
front from rank 30. By setting the strongest cross-country
time, he finally finished sixth, rounding off a
great Norwegian team result.
For the overall Summer Grand Prix standing, this
now means a 20-point lead of Japan's Akito Watabe.
With a first and a fourth rank, he accumulated 150
points. Rank two goes to Bernhard Gruber (130 p.),
Klemetsen is ranked third (102 points).
