COC-M: Bjerkeengen and Semenic win in Iron Mountain
This weekend the Continental Cup circuit moved to the USA, where three competitions are planned in Iron Mountain, MI this weekend. The first competition on the Pine Mountain ski jump was won by Fredrik Bjerkeengen.
The 24-year-old Norwegian proved his currently good shape and celebrated his second win this winter with two consistently strong jumps on 137.5 m and 135 m and a total of 290.0 points.
"It's my first time in Iron Mountain and it was great. Jumping at Pine Mountain is legendary. I like the hill and the atmosphere here. I heard a lot of good things about the area and all of them have been true", said Bjerkeengen.
Matic Benedik of Slovenia, who was in the lead after the first round with 138.5 m, jumped on 127 m in the final and captured the second place with his 277.4 points. With this performance he stood on the podium in the COC for the first time ever.
Germany's Christian Heim, with a 128 m jump only 18th after the first round, showed the longest jump in the final round with 137 m and moved up to third overall. Just like the Slovene, also the 19-year-old German achieved the best result of his career.
With Felix Schoft as fourth and Jan Maylaender, who was sixth behind Austrian Manuel Poppinger (5th), two more athletes of Germany were among the best in this competition.
Best of the Polish team was Aleksander Zniszczol as seventh. Behind him, Norwegian Ole Marius Ingvaldsen and Clemens Aigner of Austria shared the eighth place.
Two Slovenes ahead
As a replacement for one of the competitions that were cancelled in Lahti last December, an additional second competition was carried out on Saturday and that ended with a double victory for Slovenia.
The victory went to 19-year-old Anze Semenic, who could achieve his second win in the Continental Cup with 133 m and 136 m and a total of 281.7 points. The second place once again was captured by Matic Benedik, who confirmed his strong performance of the first competition with 134 m and 126.5 m (266.4 points).
"It's awesome! This is my first time in America and in Iron Mountain and it's been great. The hill is a bit different and it took some time adjusting, but I'm very happy with my jumps today. The people here in Iron Mountain made my experience great. I'm not used to seeing such a big crowd", told Semenic.
The third place went to Thomas Diethart. The Austrian, sixth after the first round, posted a jump on 130 m in the final and moved up to the podium with 264.2 points.
Andraz Pograjc completed the great team result of the Slovenes as fourth. Behind Austrian Elias Pfannenstill (5th), the best German, Marinus Kraus, came in sixth. Like already in the first competition, the best Pole was seventh. This time it was Krzysztof Biegun.
With 135 m Robert Johansson of Norway was in the lead after the first round ahead of Benedik, with his second jump on 116.5 m he could not defend his position and finished tenth overall.
After Saturday's competitions Stefan Kraft is still leading the overall ranking of the COC with 525 points. Felix Schoft (431 points) is second, followed by Ole Marius Ingvaldsen (406 points).
Complete results competition 1 as pdf-file
Complete results competition 2 as pdf-file