Lahti (dpa) - The duos Terence Weber and Manuel Faißt as well as Johannes Rydzek and Vinzenz Geiger have given the German Nordic combiners two podium places in the team sprint.
The 23-year-old Weber and the four-year-old Faißt were the second in Lahti in Finland to only defeat once again the sovereign Norwegians Jarl Magnus Riiber and Joergen Graabak. Thanks to a strong performance on the last laps, Rydzek and Geiger fought for third place ahead of the second Norwegian team despite a gap in the meantime.
Weber and Faißt had shown a good ski jumping competition in the morning and were third, eleven seconds behind the leading Norwegians on the 2 x 7.5 km long cross-country course. There they overtook the Japanese runners Ryota Yamamoto and Akito Watabe, who were second, but were not able to attack the Scandinavians as expected. Rydzek (28) and Geiger (22) worked their way up from seventh after jumping. In the end, they crossed the finish line just 2.7 seconds behind their teammates. They started 1:02 minutes after Weber and Faißt.
Riiber, who is already the overall World Cup winner, and Graabak had already won the first and only team sprint of the season before.
Information about the World Cup in Lahti
The status in the overall World Cup
Information about the German combiners