KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia, February 18 (R-Sport) – Norwegian outsider Joergen Graabak upset the favorites to win the gold medal in the Nordic combined large hill and 10 kilometer event at the Sochi Olympics on Tuesday.
Graabak had never before won an individual medal at a major championships, but won by 0.6 seconds from fellow Norwegian and double Olympic medalist Magnus Moan in a sprint finish. Fabian Riessle was third for Germany, a second further back.
German Eric Frenzel had been chasing a second gold medal in Sochi and led after the opening ski jump stage of Tuesday’s race, but his struggled with a virus in the run-up to the event seemed to have left him depleted in the cross-country skiing and he finished 10th.
Nordic combined events begin with ski jumping, after which athletes' results are calculated into time advantages for the cross-country skiing stage according to a system known as the Gundersen formula.
