Nordic combined

Lamparter second behind Oftebro in Schonach

Johannes Lamparter

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Tyrolean Johannes Lamparter achieved his best World Cup result of the season with second place in Schonach on Saturday. The 23-year-old was beaten in the sprint by Norway's Jens Luraas Oftebro by 1.1 seconds. Finland's Ilkka Herola was 8.2 seconds back in third, Salzburg's Stefan Rettenegger (+10.6) in fourth. Martin Fritz, Lukas Greiderer and Franz-Josef Rehrl finished eighth to tenth. In the women's event, Lisa Hirner finished sixth after Ida-Maria Hagen's victory.

Seven Austrians had been in the top ten in the jumping, with the previous World Cup record winner Jarl Magnus Riiber taking a six-second lead over Thomas Rettenegger into the 10-km cross-country race. Lamparter was 40 seconds behind in sixth, Stefan Rettenegger 44 seconds behind in ninth. While Riiber appeared to be heading for victory, a ten-man chasing group formed. Riiber was eventually caught up and was unable to keep up. Lamparter and Oftebro pulled away, with the ÖSV ace losing out to Oftebro, who had started from twelfth place.

ÖSV team apparently got back on track in the break
After a far from perfect preparation and third place in the first Lillehammer competition in December, Lamparter has been working on his form since the Ramsau weekend before Christmas and seems to be on track for the Trondheim World Championships. With his best result of the season, Stefan Rettenegger is also likely to have overcome his slump in form following an illness suffered in mid-November. The ÖSV team was strong, but Thomas Rettenegger was relegated to 17th place, Fabio Obermeyr finished 18th.

In the World Cup, leader Riiber, who dropped back to sixth place in the race, has a lead of 50 and 67 points over the Germans Julian Schmid and Vinzenz Geiger, who finished seventh and fifth respectively on Saturday, after eight of 21 competitions. Lamparter is 238 points behind Oftebro in fifth, Stefan Rettenegger just ahead of Thomas Rettenegger and Franz-Josef Rehrl and Martin Fritz in eleventh. On Sunday (9.15/10.30 a.m., live ORF Sport +), a compact competition is on the program, as in the women's event, before the Austrians have a home match in Seefeld in two weeks' time.

Strong women
The women's ski jumping event produced a very good result for the three Austrians. Lisa Hirner was third after a jump to the maximum distance of 95.5 m, which meant that she was only two seconds behind the German leader Maria Gerboth in the 4-km cross-country race. Annalena Slamik was fifth, Claudia Purker seventh. In the cross-country race, serial winner Hagen stormed to victory 10.5 seconds ahead of Germany's Marie Armbruster and 25.5 seconds ahead of Japan's Haruka Kasai. Hirner finished 44.5 seconds behind. Purker did quite well in eleventh place (+59.6), Slamik was 17th (+1:47.9 min.).