Seulement 29e après l'épreuve de saut à 1min28 du vainqueur Allemand Christian Arlt, l'Italien Mattia Runggaldier a ensuite réussi un 10km sensationnel.

Remontant avec tous ses adversaires avec une facilité déconcertante, Runggaldier termine la course à la première place et empoche un titre mondial amplement mérité. Le jour ou ce jeune combiné sera plus fort en saut, il fera très très mal et cela également à l'étage supérieur dans le sillage de son leader Alessandro Pittin.

Les Allemands prennent deux médailles gràce à Manuel Faisst, deuxième à 7sec et Michael Schuller, troisième à 10sec. Arlt, le vainqueur du saut, se classe 4e.

Hugo Buffard aura également réalise une très belle remontée. 32e après le saut, le Français vient prendre cette belle 11e place à 48sec. Theo Hannon se classe 27e, Thomas Strappazzon 48e et Nicolas Didier 51e. 

Les réactions (source FIS) :

Mattia Runggaldier (ITA), first:

"It is the first time that I am in Turkey. The fact that Erzurum is located about 2000 meters above sea level is no problem for me. I am also satisfied with the entire organization here and I like the hill and the cross-country tracks, even if the course is really hard. At the moment my Ski Jumping doesn't work out that well for me. We are now having our own Ski Jumping coach and together we are trying our best to improve in view of the next season."

 

Manuel Faißt (GER), second:

"The problem for me in this season was that we tried to give our best but the other athletes have just been better. So I am very happy about the silver medal today. During the race I didn't think that Mattia Runggaldier would be able to catch us but suddenly he was directly behind us. So we tried to hang on with him but at the end we couldn't follow him anymore. I also want to say that I really likeErzurum and I would love to come back here in December to compete at the Nordic Combined World Cup." 

 

Michael Schuller (GER), third: 

"I didn't expect to stand on the podium and win a medal. Yesterday I made my best jump here in Erzurum and so I had a good feeling. But the training round didn't go as planned for me today and because of that I couldn't imagine to perform that well in the race. When Mattia Runggaldier joined me and Manuel Faißt at the end of the third lap we managed to lead with a comfortable advantage ahead of the big group behind us. That was the moment when I knew that a medal would be possible for me today."

 

Le classement complet ICI

 

Photo : Egon Theiner / FIS