Kristjan Ilves 6th in Winter Olympics Nordic Combined after early lead
Estonian skier Kristjan Ilves came sixth overall in the Nordic Combined event at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, though was in the lead after the initial ski jumping round.
A particularly grueling 10 km cross-country ski saw him move down from first to sixth.
The Nordic Combined event has been run at every Winter Games, starting with the first Olympics at Chamonix in 1924. It involves a ski jump followed by a 10 km cross-country ski.
Controversially, it is a men-only sport: Women are barred from competing, though they compete in the event at the World Championship and World Cup levels.
Ilves was taking part in the individual normal hill event. A large hill event (followed by the same distance ski) follows next week for both individuals and teams.
Ilves' sixth place marks Estonia's best result so far since the Games started last week. It is also the best Olympic result of his career to date – four years ago in Beijing he finished ninth in the large hill event. Only Ago Markvardt has achieved a better Olympic result among Estonian Nordic combined athletes since the restoration of independence, finishing fifth in Lillehammer back in 1994.
Sixteen-year-old Ruubert Teder also represented Estonia in the event, with 36 competitors in all.
On Thursday, Ilves posted a 99-meter jump in strong tailwind conditions, and earned 132.6 points, placing him first after the jump.
"I'm standing here as the leader after two years – I haven't even been close before. It's quite unbelievable," he said after Wednesday's jump.
"At the same time, it didn't come completely out of nowhere. I've been super consistent on the hill here for three days. Even when I've made mistakes, I've still been fifth or sixth," he told ERR.
"We'll see what the cross-country [stage] brings. It's hard for me to say, because I'm a realistic person. I understand that the course conditions aren't my favorites. I need a fast track to be in good rhythm, but you never know. Hopefully the skis will be good. The race will be long and tough, I'm quite sure of that," Ilves said.
Thanks to his hill jump triumph, Ilves started the 10 km cross-country course with a 15-second start over his rivals. A larger chasing group quickly massed together on the course, but the Estonian set a rather fast early pace, and by the end of the first lap had extended his lead to 22.6 seconds.
However, on lap two, this proved a difficult pace to keep up and Ilves' advantage began to shrink. At the 3.7 km mark, the chasers, led by eventual winner Jens Luraas Oftebro (Norway), were champing at the Estonian's heels and were just 10.3 seconds behind, and by the end of that lap they had closed the gap.
A seven-man lead group, Ilves among them, then crystallized at the front and kept together until the end of the third lap.
Ilves' medal hopes unfortunately faded at the start of the final lap on the long climb, where leader Oftebro found an extra gear and other skiers including Austrians Johannes Lamparter and Stefan Rettenegger, along with Finns Ilkka Herola and Eero Hirvonen, all put in a superhuman effort to track the Norwegian. At the final intermediate time check, Ilves trailed the leading group by just under 15 seconds.
Oftebro asserted his superiority to take gold, Lamparter (silver) by one second and Hirvonen (bronze) by 2.5 seconds. Ilves crossed the line in sixth place, 41.1 seconds behind.
"It's a tough course. Especially for me. I don't really have much strength in my body yet and… it's awful," were his first comments to ERR post-race. "I think the last time I skied a ten this long was three years ago."
"The first three laps were very good. On the fourth there were a lot of mishaps because the snow was so thick and the strength just drained from my body," he added. "I really enjoyed the first two laps, but then the time just kept dragging on and the course got worse with every lap."
Nonetheless, there were other highlights as well as the jump. "The crowd support… if it was powerful at the Otepää World Cup, then here it's manifold times more awesome. There are so many Estonians along the course too – that's really nice."
Teder finished 30th in the jump (90 meters, 101.3 points) and 34th after the 10 km, trailing the winner by nine minutes and 31 seconds.
The large hill event takes place next Tuesday.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte
