Medals update: Joergen Graabak wins gold in Nordic Combined individual Gundersen large hill/10km at Beijing 2022

It's a 1-2 for Norway in the Nordic combined with Graabak winning the Olympic title eight years after he won the same at Sochi 2014 with compatriot Jens Luraas Oftebro claiming silver with Japan's Watabe Akito winning bronze.

Beijing 2022 Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10km, Cross CountryBeijing 2022 

(2022 Getty Images)

The whole of Norway will be jumping after claiming a 1-2 finish in the Nordic combined discipline on Tuesday (15 February) at the National Ski Jumping Centre & National Cross-Country Skiing Centre at Beijing 2022.

The winner of the individual Gundersen large hill and 10km cross-country event, Joergen Graabak, crossed the line first in a time of 27:13.3 just ahead of a chasing three. One of those was his compatriot Jens Luraas Oftebro, who had the race of his life to claim silver (27:13.7).

Post race, Graabak said: "It’s a bit surreal to be honest, I really didn’t expect that but I had a really strong finish and was able to cross the finish line first so it’s really a big dream come true.”

Japan's Watabe Akito bagged bronze (27:13.9) just two seconds ahead of Germany's Manuel Faisst, who finished fourth, unable to claim a medal after Germany swept the podium in 2018. The defending Olympic champion, Johannes Rydzek finished down the field in 28th.

The next best finisher, Austria's Lukas Greiderer – already the bronze medallist in the individual normal hill at Beijing 2022 – finished behind Faisst with 2021 world champion in this discipline, Johannes Lamparter coming sixth.

The leader heading into the 10km race after the ski jump, Jarl Magnus Riiber, a silver medallist in the team event at PyeongChang 2018, had a healthy 45-second lead over the next athlete, but was always likely to struggle having just been released from COVID-19 quarantine. His task was made nigh on impossible after taking a wrong turn early in the race, losing 20 seconds from his lead. Riiber finished eighth.

*Individual Gundersen large hill/10km results: *

1- Joergen Graabak (NOR) – 27:13.3

2- Jens Luraas Oftebro (NOR) – 27:13.7

3- Watabe Akito (JPN) – 27:13.9

More to follow...

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