Johannes Rydzek continues on his summer winning
spree! After taking the Team Sprint together with
Eric Frenzel and the Individual Gundersen in Oberwiesenthal,
the 22-year-old also took the win at the Individual
Gundersen competition in Villach, Austria, today.
The German crossed the finish line a clear 13.1
seconds ahead of teammate Bjo"rn Kircheisen
and 20.2 seconds earlier than Slovenia’s Marjan
Jelenko.
The ski jumping round on Villach’s HS 98 hill concluded
with a surprise winner: Fabian Steindl from the
Austrian national group won the ski jumping round,
starting with BIB No. 3. The 20-year-old took the
intermediate lead with a great jump of 99.5 metres,
only half a metre shorter than Yoshito Watabe’s
100 metres, the longest jump of the day. With 125.5
points, this meant rank two for the Japanese, 0.2
seconds behind Steindl’s 125.9 total points. German
veteran Bjo"rn Kircheisen showed a convincing
jumping performance with 96 metres and intermediate
rank three put him only 5 seconds behind Steindl
for the start of the cross-country race and as the
top favourite for the day’s victory.
Russian jumping expert Evgeniy Klimov held the intermediate
fourth rank with a jump of 95.5 metres ahead of
Finland’s Ilkka Herola (95.5m; 122.9 p.; +0:12)
and German superstar Eric Frenzel (96.5 m; 122.7
p., +0:13). The jumping Top Ten were completed by
yesterday’s PCR winner Franz-Josef Rehrl, Christoph
Bieler, Johannes Rydzek and Marjan Jelenko who all
started within 23 seconds of leader Steindl. With
21 seconds of time behind, the Summer Grand Prix
overall leader Johannes Rydzek was also well set
up for another good result in Villach.
The jumping part did not end so well for Jason Lamy
Chappuis who had a weaker jump in difficult conditions
and landed at 82 metres already, giving him two
minutes and six seconds to make up for the race,
a tough job, even for the French superstar. He didn’t
finish the race in the end.
In the roller-ski race, a big leading group consisting
of about ten athletes formed on the first lap only
to be left by the „German train“ Rydzek and Kircheisen
on the next lap. The leaders skied to an undisputed
win with the ranks one and two being decided on
the last part of the last lap where Rydzek attacked
and was stronger than his teammate. Behind the Germans,
the fight for the last remaining spot on the podium
was on between five athletes: Jelenko, local hero
Mario Seidl, Eric Frenzel, Ilkka Herola and Yoshito
Watabe. The Slovenian had the strongest finish on
the last uphill, his best individual result in the
World Cup or Summer Grand Prix to date. Also for
Seidl, a rank four meant a career best.
The two young Austrians Fabian Steindl and Franz-Josef
Rehrl ended up on the positions eight and nine,
also improving their career bests, completing a
successful day for the Austrian development team.
