Kombi-Team Fights for Medals - Norway in the Lead

German WM Team Aims for Medals

In the mixed competition in Trondheim, Vinzenz Geiger and his teammates are in third place after the ski jump.

The German team is on course for a medal at the World Championships in Trondheim in the mixed event of Nordic combined. After the jump, the quartet, led by Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger and silver medalist Julian Schmid, along with World Cup leader Nathalie Armbruster and Jenny Nowak, enters the final cross-country relay at 16:05.

However, the deficit may be too great for a gold medal attack.

Can the German Team Challenge Norway?

Norway, led by star Jarl Magnus Riiber, secured first place with a 14-second lead over Japan and Yuna Kasai, who won gold in the mass start on Thursday. Germany trails by 28 seconds, with Austria in fourth (+45 seconds). In the relay, the two men will run 5 km each, and the women will run 2.5 km each.

"Norway is the favorite for gold. It would be nice if we could annoy them," said Geiger, who impressed with a jump of 102.5 m, just as his Oberstdorf clubmate Schmid (103.5 m).

But they couldn't catch Norway's record world champion Riiber, who delivered the best jump of the day at 107.0 m and could win his ninth world title. "It will be difficult to catch the Norwegians; we have to be realistic. We have to take some risks, but half a minute is already a lot," Schmid said.

Will it be Silver Again?

Among the women, Nowak (94.5 m) and Armbruster (93.5 m) were not quite on the level of the very best, including Norway's second-place individual runner Gyda Westvold Hansen (102.0 m).

Armbruster missed the expected opening medal in the mass start, finishing sixth, while Nowak was the best German in fifth place.

At the 2023 World Championship debut of the mixed team, Germany, in the same lineup, won silver behind the Norwegian quartet, which also competed in the same formation. The men will compete in their first individual event from the normal hill on Saturday, while the women's championship will conclude on Sunday with the Gundersen event also from the small hill.