Nordic combined

J.-M. Riiber surprisingly ends his career immediately!

Jarl-Magnus Riiber(Bild: AFP/AMANDA PEDERSEN GISKE)

After a hill record of 146 meters on the Holmenkollen and a strong 7.5 km race, Ilkka Herola today celebrated the first Finnish World Cup victory in the Nordic Combined since 2010 (Hannu Manninen). Herola won ahead of Vinzenz Geiger (GER/+15.3 sec.) and the Tyrolean Johannes Lamparter (+18.2). Jarl-Magnus Riiber, meanwhile, surprised everyone by announcing that he had already competed in the last competition of his career in Oslo ...

Riiber, who dropped back to 45th place in the finish, will not be competing in the World Cup final in Lahti and thus also forgo the chance of another crystal globe for the overall World Cup victory. Geiger took the lead and is already the overall winner due to Riiber's immediate retirement before the end of the season.

"I am so, so tired and make a lot of mistakes, it feels so right for me to stop here and close this fantastic chapter. I'm happy with the decision and with everything I've achieved," said the 78-time World Cup winner Riiber.

From an Austrian perspective, it was a great race for the team, as four ÖSV aces finished in the top ten with Stefan Rettenegger, Franz-Josef Rehrl and Lukas Greiderer in fourth, sixth and ninth place respectively. Fabio Obermeyr finished in 13th place.

Riiber dropped back
Herola had taken advantage of too much upwind on the hill and sailed down to 146 meters. The Finn was able to stop the jump and set a new hill record on the Holmenkollen. Due to the fixed time intervals in the compact competition, Herola's giant leap as leader still only gave him a six-second lead over his pursuer Rehrl.

The story of the day, however, was Riiber's sudden retirement, who apparently wanted to put his skis in the corner in front of his home crowd. Riiber apparently deliberately dropped back so far that he could be given a worthy send-off by all his Norwegian colleagues with a champagne shower at the finish and only came 45th for this reason.

"Unbelievable, he was and still is an idol for me!"
Lamparter tipped his hat to the combined legend Riiber. "Unbelievable, he was and still is an idol for me. How he dominated the sport for us. He can be the fastest on the cross-country ski run and also incredibly good at ski jumping. You can only learn from him, he's also an incredibly likeable person and I wish him all the best.

Regarding his own race, he spoke of a somewhat mixed competition. "The conditions on the hill weren't quite on my side. But I had a strong final. Twice on the podium on Holmenkollen, that's fun," said Lamparter.