Philipp Orter winning by hair's breadth - Federico Modica
Philipp Orter has crowned himself double Junior World Champion in today's 5 kilometre-Individual Gundersen competition. In an exciting photo finish, the Austrian finished 0.1 seconds ahead of David Welde from Germany who extended his medal collection and claimed a silver today. The bronze medal went to fellow Austrian Martin Fritz who crossed the finish line 1.8 seconds after Orter. Russia's Evgeniy Klimov just missed a sensation: After winning a bronze medal in yesterday's special jumping event, the jumping expert skied a great race to day and finished fourth.
In the ski jumping competition, Czech Tomas Portyk set the best jump of the day with 98 metres which gave him 127.6 points and a lead of 11 seconds over runner-up Evgeniy Klimov. The Russian jumping expert jumped 94.5 metres in slight tailwind conditions which meant 124.8 points and an intermediate second rank. Portyk's teammate Tomas Vancura was on the third position after jumping with 96 metres (124.3 p.) and 13 seconds of time behind after Portyk.
Together with fourth-ranked Martin Fritz from Austria who actually set the longest jump of the day together with Portyk (98 metres), Estonian World Cup athlete Kristjan Ilves and Jarl Magnus Riiber, a first pursuing group for Portyk was already set up at the start as all five athletes started within 18 seconds after the jumping winner. The second Riiber-brother, Harald, claimed an intermediate seventh rank and was followed by a strong pursuing group consisting of 10-kilometres medallists David Welde (93.5 m; 118.2 p., +0:49) and Philipp Orter (91.5 m; 113.4 p; +0:57), setting these two up promisingly for another precious metal at Val di Fiemme.
Strong skiers Hugo Buffard from France and Bernhard Flaschberger from Austria were +1:45 and +1:52 behind Portyk, still at striking distance considering the very wet and hard track in Lago di Tesero's cross-country stadium.
In the race, Tomas Portyk managed to hold onto his lead until the second lap when the group of pursuers with Jarl Riiber, Evgeniy Klimov, Martin Fritz and Kristjan Ilves caught up to the Czech. Behind this group, David Welde and Philipp Orter had worked their way to the front as expected and on the last uphill, Orter attacked like in yesterday's race. Definitely the strongest one on the uphill, he left Welde, Fritz and Portyk behind, going in the last downhill first. On the home stretch, however, David Welde caught up until a photo finish had to decide the winner: the Austrian took the double gold. Martin Fritz skied to a bronze medal.
Behind the podium, Russian Evgeniy Klimov fought intermediate leader Portyk and won the photo finish against the Czech, claiming a fourth rank after his special jumping bronze medal of yesterday. Jarl Riiber held onto his sixth rank, his brother Harald finished eighth with Estonia's Kristjan Ilves coming in as seveth. Hugo Buffard and Jakob Lange completed the Top Ten. Norwegian Sindre Pettersen skied the fastest time of the day with 12:38.6 and improved an intermediate 33th rank to a final 11th one.
As another highlight, a Team Event is on schedule as the last Nordic Combined competition of the Junior World Championships of Fiemme2014. The ski jumping round starts at 9:50, the 4 x 5 kilometre race begins at 14:30.
