Subject: Vik
Wins, Demong 20th at Lillehammer Nordic Combined World Cup
Date:
Saturday, December 30, 2000 1:50 PM
U.S. Ski Team
News Bureau
http://www.usskiteam.com
Saturday, Dec.
30, 2000
*****************************
VIK WINS FIRST
OF SEASON; DEMONG 20TH IN LILLEHAMMER
LILLEHAMMER,
Norway (Dec. 30) - Norwegian Olympic champion Bjarte Engen
Vik delighted
the home folks Saturday as he took charge during a rugged
15-km race to
win his first nordic combined World Cup of the season -
and the 25th
of his storied career. Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) was
20th and Todd
Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) 29th in the 10-degree
cold.
Vik
had been second in the 90-meter jumping during the morning and,
although he
started 23 seconds back of jump leader David Kreiner of
Austria, moved
easily to the front. He went on to win by 26.5 seconds
over defending
World Cup champion Samppa Lajunen of Finland with Czech
Ladislav Rygl
third, World Cup leader Felix Gottwald of Austria fourth
and Germany's
Ronny Ackermann fifth.
It
was a good rebound for Vik, who struggled in Kuopio, Finland,
earlier in the
month - the only two events before Lillehammer. He was
second Friday
behind teammate Kristian Hammer in a sprint.
Demong,
21st in jumping, finished 3:23.1 behind Vik while Lodwick
muddled
through the jumping in 37th place and moved up eight spots
during the
15-km race.
"Unlike
Schlep [Sarah Schleper of Vail, CO, who was third in a giant
slalom in
Austria], we just didn't get it done, " said Head Coach Tom
Steitz.
"The conditions were good - the cold made it slow for cross
country, but
it was the same for everyone - and we should've performed
better. I'm
thinking we'd better pick it up in Germany next week."
The
World Cup events Friday and Saturday in Lillehammer replaced two
events
scheduled for the 1994 Olympic area in late November but canceled
because of no
snow. Three other World Cup events in central Europe also
were dropped
because of the snow drought and unseasonal warm weather.
The
Warsteiner combined tour moves to Reit-im-Winkl, Germany, for a
mass-start
event Wednesday. That competition will be followed Jan. 5 by
a sprint in
Schonach and an experimental World Cup event on the 7th with
the field cut
to top-30 after one 90-meter jump; after those 30 take
their second
jump, the pack will ski a 15-km race with the handicap
start based on
a 16 points-per-minute-back, the formula for 7.5-km
races.
After
the German events, the tour heads to Utah for the pre-Olympic
events on the
jumps outside Park City and the cross country races at
Soldier Hollow
Jan. 19-21. The North America visit concludes Jan. 26-27
with two
events in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
WARSTEINER
NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP
Lillehammer,
NOR - Dec. 30
K90/15-km
1. Bjarte
Engen Vik, Norway, (2/11)
2. Samppa
Lajunen, Finland, (7/4) 26.5 seconds back
3. Ladislav
Rygl, Czech Republic, (10/2) 30.4
4. Felix
Gottwald, Austria, (8/3) 30.9
5. Ronny
Ackermann, Germany, (6/5) 34.3
6. Kristian
Hammer, Norway, (15/7) 1:38.3
7. Marco
Baacke, Germany, (18/13) 2:19.6
8. Frederic
Baud, France, (14/18) 2:21.0
9. David
Kreiner, Austria, (1/39) 2:26.0
10. Jaakko
Tallus, Finland, (3/35) 2;36.3
11. Kenneth
Braaten, Norway, (23/16) 2:57.8
12. Norihito
Kobayashi, Japan, (29/9) 2:58.4
13. Andy
Hartmann, Switzerland, (29/10) 3:00.2
14. Kenji
Ogiwara, Japan, (22/20) 3:01.5
15. Jari
Mantila, Finland, (13/24) 3:02.0
-
20. Bill
Demong, Vermontville, N.Y., (21/23) 3:23.1
29. Todd
Lodwick, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (37/22) 4:55.1
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Best in the World! -