15:32. The first leg of the Nordic Combined Continental Cup season kicked off in Ruka, Finland, on Saturday. Although the athletes were due to compete in a compact individual event, it was in the end on a gundersen that they came out on top.
Having started second after the jump, Norway’s Simen Tiller managed to claw back one place to claim a fine victory ahead of Germany’s Richard Stenzel and his compatriot Andreas Ottesen. Austrian Florian Kolb, winner of the jumping competition, fell off the podium to settle for fourth place.
After starting in tenth place in this cross-country ski pursuit, Gaël Blondeau put in a fine performance, crossing the line in eighth place just over a minute and thirty seconds behind the leader.
The full rankings
