Ida Marie Hagen won three out of three competitions in Otepää, as two ski jumping rounds got cancelled due to unfavourable wind conditions. The World Champion from Trondheim Yuna Kasai scored her first podium of the season, while Minja Korhonen achieved podiums in all three events.
by Maciej Jackiewicz
Friday – 4km Mass Start
The women’s weekend with Nordic combined in Otepää began on Thursday with two provisional competition rounds. Then, on Friday the first competition took place. It was the mass start, which is the only competition where the cross-country run takes place before the ski jumping part. Just as the race commenced, Ida Marie Hagen quickly put herself in the lead, with Nathalie Armbruster and Tara Geraghty-Moats just behind her. This three-person group pulled out ahead of the rest in the first part of the race. With 2.5km to go the American could not keep up with Hagen and Armbruster, and she dropped behind. As the first lap ended, there was a nine-second gap between the leading two and Geraghty-Moats and then seven seconds between the American and the big chasing group, comprising of around ten skiers.
The second lap saw Hagen attack and Armbruster was not able to keep up with the Norwegian’s pace. Around this time, Geraghty-Moats was also caught by the chasing group, which seemed to be the place where the fight for third place would take place. As the skiers crossed the finish line, Ida Marie Hagen won the cross-country part with a 10:50.9 time, 16.8 seconds faster than Nathalie Armbruster in second. Inside the final kilometre, Marte Leinan Lund attacked from the group, allowing her to finish third 34 seconds behind her compatriot.
Next up was the ski jumping event, at the HS97 Tehvandi hill, but as the competition was about to start the wind was way too strong for the skiers to jump. After a longer wait, the jury decided to cancel the ski jumping part and use the results of the second provisional competition round to determine the winner of the mass start. With that, Ida Marie Hagen won, with a 1.2-point gap over Minja Korhonen, who had finished the seventh in the cross-country. Armbruster stood on the lowest step of the podium. The winner of the PCR, Ingrid Låte, finished fifth despite a very poor run, as she won the ski jumping provisional round by over 18 points.
Saturday – 6km Gundersen
Saturday in Otepää was the day of Gundersen competitions – the classic Nordic combined format, where the skiers first jump on the hill and then run on the cross-country track, with the gaps between skiers at the start of the race being set by differences in the ski jumping score. Unfortunately, similarly to Friday the wind on the Estonian hill was way too strong to jump, which caused the jury to again cancel the jumping round. This time, the first provisional competition round was used. Thanks to that, Ingrid Låte started the cross-country race with a huge gap of one minute 12 seconds over Ida Marie Hagen and one minute 33 seconds over Minja Korhonen.
Despite the huge initial lead, Låte was thrown to the wolves, as her cross-country form is far from ideal. Her gap was melting away rapidly, and by the start of the second lap the young Norwegian was overtaken by Ida Marie Hagen. Behind them, a group consisting of Minja Korhonen and Jenny Nowak was fighting for third, while another three-person group was running behind. By the three-kilometre mark, Alexa Brabec made the jump to the group of Korhonen and Nowak, before dropping the latter as the last lap had begun. All of these athletes had one thing in mind – to catch Låte as quickly as possible, as the Norwegian was still struggling. With the last lap beginning, the gap between Låte and the chasing group of Korhonen and Brabec was just thirty seconds.
Minja Korhonen attacked and was joined by Yuna Kasai from the group behind, as Alexa Brabec was not able to keep up with the Finnish-Japanese duo. The gap between Låte and the chasers was getting smaller and smaller and as the skiers arrived at the stadium, the brilliant Norwegian jumper was caught by Kasai, Korhonen and Brabec. Ida Marie Hagen, meanwhile, had already pulled clear at the front and went on to win in dominant fastion. She finished one minute and 21 seconds ahead of the second-placed Yuna Kasai, who beat Minja Korhonen in a very exciting photo finish. Then it was Alexa Brabec, who was able to overtake Ingrid Låte just on the line.
Sunday – 4km Compact
The last day of the Otepää triple was dedicated to compact events. These are very similar in form to the Gundersen format, but the gaps between skiers at the start of the cross-country run are set and based on the places the athletes have after ski jumping, in lieu of the exact ski jumping score. The wind conditions improved significantly and we were finally able to watch ski jumping part of the Nordic combined. The competition began with the 84-metre jump of World Cup debutant Maja Loh. She did not lead for a very long time, as the lead changed hands quickly. Anna-Sophia Gredler, Greta Pinzani and Tia Malovrh all took their turns at the top.
The first jump over the K-point came with Bib 17 Claudia Purker, who achieved exactly 90 metres to take over the lead. It lasted exactly eight jumps, as Jenny Nowak despite jumping 88.5 metres outscored the Austrian by 0.9 points. To no one’s surprise, the gate before the jump of Ingrid Låte was lowered from gate 13 to gate 10, but it did not stop the best jumper in the Nordic Combined World Cup to achieved a very good 96.5 metres. In normal conditions it would have given her a massive lead come the cross-country part, but in a compact race the gaps are set. Minja Korhonen achieved 93.5 metres to be classified in second, before Nathalie Armbruster and Ida Marie Hagen both jumped 93 metres. The latter was in the end classified higher, and all in all Låte won, with a six-second advantage over Korhonen and 12-second one over Hagen before the cross-country race.
It came as no surprise, that just as the cross-country race began, Låte was passed by both Hagen and Korhonen. These two pulled out ahead, to lead the race in its opening moments. Behind them, a group consisting of Låte, Nowak and Brabec formed, around 17 seconds behind the leaders. Korhonen tried really hard to stay with the World Cup leader, but just after the one-kilometre mark Hagen pulled ahead of Korhonen and created a 11-second gap come the end of the first lap. In the meantime, Låte was dropped by Nowak and Brabec. But the American-German duo could not stay calm, as they were quickly approached by another chasing group, comprising of Lisa Hirner, Marte Leinan Lund and Yuna Kasai.
As the three-kilometre mark approached, Jenny Nowak lost her pace and allowed Alexa Brabec to get away from her. Just behind the German, the trio of Hirner, Lund and Kasai was approaching rapidly. But at the front, it was Ida Marie Hagen who won the first compact of the season. With this being her 23rd win in the World Cup, she equaled the record of her compatriot Gyda Westvold Hansen, who is competing in the Ski Jumping World Cup this seaosn. Behind Hagen, Korhonen scored second with a 26-second loss and Brabec scored her fourth podium of the season. With this performance, the gap between Hagen and Brabec in the World Cup standings is 140 points, while Armbruster fell from third to fifth, switching places with Minja Korhonen.
Results
| Session | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Full results |
| 4km Mass Start | Ida Marie Hagen, 101.0 points | Minja Korhonen, -1.2p | Nathalie Armbruster, -3.1p | Here |
| 6km Gundersen | Ida Marie Hagen, 19:46.1 | Yuna Kasai, +1:21.9s | Minja Korhonen, +1:22.2s | Here |
| 4km Compact | Ida Marie Hagen, 11:19.5 | Minja Korhonen, +26.1s | Alexa Brabec, +43.9s | Here |
What’s next?
The very physically demanding weekend in Otepää has finished, but the athletes will not be able to rest for a long time, as the World Cup is back in action on 17–18 January with two Gundersen competitions in Oberhof, alongside the Cross-Country World Cup, which is coming back from the Tour de Ski (about which you can read here).
Header photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Leave a comment