Combined athlete Julian Schmid celebrated his third win of the season on his own doorstep. At the home game in Oberstdorf, the 23-year-old won the final sprint of a four-man leading group after a thrilling race to catch up and underpinned his medal ambitions three weeks before the World Championships in Planica. Second place went to the Norwegian Jens Luraas Oftebro ahead of Franz-Josef Rehrl (Austria).
“A huge dream has come true. Winning in your own place is something very special. There are so many people here that I’ve known since childhood,” said Schmid on “ARD”: “It was exciting to the last meters. There were so many spectators screaming, it was just awesome.”
One day after the thankless fourth place, local hero Schmid initially jumped strongly and went into cross-country skiing as third. On the trail he was part of a group of three chasing the clearly leading Rehrl. The jump winner was only caught on the home stretch.
World champion Johannes Lamparter (Austria), who clinched his sixth win of the season on Saturday, finished fourth. Jakob Lange and Eric Frenzel followed in eleventh and twelfth place.
In the overall World Cup, Lamparter is ahead of Schmid (944) with five competitions to go with 1045 points. The Norwegian Jarl Magnus Riiber, who is taking a break in Oberstdorf, has little chance of winning the crystal globe for the fifth time in a row and thus breaking Frenzel’s record as fourth with 723 points.
Like on Saturday, Olympic champion Vinzenz Geiger did not start at his home game. “The top priority is that he heals the infection completely,” said national coach Hermann Weinbuch.