BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Austria's Johannes Lamparter won the Nordic combined World Cup Individual Gundersen race in Klingenthal, Germany on Saturday.
Estonia's Kristjan Ilves collected a match-leading 145.8 points from his 140-meter jump, which made him the first one to go into the cross-country race.
The second place after jumping went to Ryota Yamamoto from Japan, who landed at 142.5 meters for 145.5 points and went into the course only one second behind Ilves. Lamparter placed third with a nine-second backlog on the leader.
In cross-country, a total of nine athletes went into the race within the first minute. Ilves, Yamamoto and Lamparter formed a strong leading group early on.
The top three went down the home stretch together and delivered an exciting finish sprint in front of the fans in the Vogtland Arena, before Lamparter finally won 0.3 seconds ahead of Ilves. Yamamoto was third.
Lamparter secured his second World Cup win of the season and caught up with absent Jarl Magnus Riiber from Norway in the overall World Cup ranking with a total of 700 points. ■
