LAHTI, Finland (Feb. 29) – Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) was 12th in a World Cup Nordic combined event on Friday in Lahti. Demong remains second in the World Cup standings, 30 points ahead of Norwegian Petter Tande who won in the event.
Demong had trouble in the jumping portion of the competition, finishing 28th, which put him 3:09 back in the cross country start. He kicked it into high gear in the 15K cross country race, finishing third, but was only able to finish 12th, moving up 16 places.
“Today he had his worst day in jumping. He was a little too far out after the jump. He's also been a little sick and I think that was still in his system,” Head Coach Lasse Ottesen said. “He himself felt he didn't have a great race. After a good season, it's always normal to expect something more.”
Tande won the event by a margin of seven seconds over German Eric Frenzel. Current World Cup leader Ronny Ackermann of Germany extended his lead over Demong, finishing third.
The Nordic combined World Cup will conclude Saturday in Finland with a hurricane sprint. The hurricane start is an exciting format where skiers are separated at the start of the cross country race by distance rather than time.
Skiers are placed certain distances apart inside a starting ring of concentric circles. At the start, the circles essentially unravel. Click here to see an actual hurricane start at Utah's Soldier Hollow.
“Overall, it was certainly not a good day. He struggled all the way from the jumping hill. The main thing is to learn from what we did and take the positive from it and move on.”
Demong was the only U.S. competitor in Lahti.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 WARSTEINER FIS WORLD CUP NORDIC COMBINED
Lahti, FIN – Feb. 29, 2008
HS134/15K
Men's
1. Petter Tande, Norway, (7/7)
2. Eric Frenzel, Germany, (2/20) 7.1 (seconds back)
3. Ronny Ackermann, Germany, (8/8) 29.9
4. Hannu Manninen, Finland, (30/1) 44.4
5. Bjoern Kircheisen, Germany (25/2) 45.3
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12. Bill Demong, Vermontville, NY (28/3) 1:14.3
Source: USSA
