LAHTI, Finland (March 10) - Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) had a so-so lone jump Saturday and finished 11th in a World Cup nordic combined "Hurricane" sprint 24 hours after capturing the second win of his career at the Lahti Ski Games.
"To be 11th on a mediocre day still shows Billy's skiing well. Hannu [Manninen, Finland's defending World Cup champion and sprint gold medalist at World Championships last month in Japan] was third yesterday behind Bill and 14th today. Magnus [Moan - Norway's Olympic and worlds silver medalist] was fifth yesterday and 25th today...so we learn from this, take the positives and keep going forward," Head Coach Lasse Ottesen said.
In the sprint, athletes get one jump and then race over 7.5 kilometers. In the Hurricane sprint, skiers are penalized so much distance - rather than the traditional time handicap - behind the top jumper and then line up in a swirl with everyone starting together, but with the field unrolling from the swirl as the athletes begin to go after the jumping leader.
Demong, silver medalist in the individual event at Worlds and winner of an individual competition Friday, was 16th in jumping and moved up five places in the race, finishing just over a minute back of German Bjoern Kircheisen. Felix Gottwald of Austria had the fastest sprint time and moved up from 13th to second, 14.2 seconds behind Kircheisen.
"Billy had a good trial jump, but then was about four meters shorter in the comp, and that's enough to hurt him," Ottesen said. "He was a little early on the jump - since you only get one jump, he wanted to make sure it was a good one, but he pushed a little too hard and came up short... and that dropped him back to start the race...
"And, I've got to admit, Billy didn't have the skis he had yesterday. He'd catch up to everyone than they'd leave on the downhills...and he'd catch up again - he said he felt good and he skied like it - and then they'd take off again."
Former sprint world champion Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) did not start the event because of continuing pain in his left shoulder, which was reinjured during the World Championships in dryland training.
The World Cup season ends next weekend at Holmenkollen, above Oslo.