Hermann Weinbuch was beside himself. The fresh snow that fell overnight in the Julian Alps has turned the mixed team competition in the combination, which was held for the first time at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, into a farce. The organizers were unable to ensure regular conditions in time.

Ralf Weitbrecht

Sports editor.

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"It was very dangerous, grossly negligent," said the national coach stunned. "Something like that shouldn't happen at the World Cup." In the competition, which was supposed to start on Sunday morning on the normal hill, the Italian Alessandro Pittin and the Japanese Akito Watabe crashed directly after each other. Immediately afterwards it was canceled.

The problem was the too soft landing slope, which had obviously not been properly prepared after the snowfall. For Weinbuch, since 1996 the first man on the coaching post at the combined athletes, it was clear: "Unfortunately, the homework has not been done. It is much too soft. They made a mistake in the preparation."

"It hurts my combination soul"

The 62-year-old's recommendation: Away with the snow. If it had continued under these conditions in Planica, he would not have let his athletes jump even with a shortened run-up to protect them.

The picture that presented itself around the ski jump affected Weinbuch. "This is a disaster for the overall situation in Nordic combined. We have to see long and good jumps. It hurts my combination soul that unfortunately something like this happened again." When Watabe crashed, his teammate Yuna Kasai wept bitterly. It was originally supposed to start at 10.30 a.m. on this crucial Sunday. Then the restart was postponed again and again.

In the end, it was 12:42 when the eagerly awaited competition began, the fallen Pittin was no longer there and was replaced by Aaron Kostner and there were halfway World Championship-worthy conditions for the combined athletes. After all 32 starters had finished their jumps under the eyes of a very sparse backdrop, it was clear: Team Germany had to go into the cross-country ski run with a gap of 25 seconds to Norway. The Japanese team was five seconds behind the Scandinavians.

Schmid saves the grains

The fact that the Norwegians did not let anyone spoil their journey to golden happiness was no surprise, but on the contrary corresponded to the grown conditions in the world of combined athletes. For the German quartet, the goal was second place – and it was achieved with flying colors. Vinzenz Geiger, Jenny Nowak, Nathalie Armbruster and final runner Julian Schmid won silver for the second time within one day. On Saturday it was Schmid who, as the next day, had to acknowledge the great class of Jarl Magnus Riiber. For a short time it was only in the fight for second place again rudimentarily exciting.

When the Austrian world champion Johannes Lamparter took up the pursuit of Schmid, he shortened the gap with huge double-decker thrusts. But that was only a snapshot. "I saw him coming. But I approached the first lap in a controlled manner," said Schmid, who trusted his body and his strength. "I still had enough grains." In the end, the advantage over Austria was 12.2 seconds. 47.8 seconds behind Riiber, Silbermann Schmid crossed the finish line on a day that had started embarrassingly for the Slovenian World Championship organizers.