Norwegian athletes finish one-two in Nordic combined individual large hill/10km at Beijing 2022

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Norwegian athletes Joergen Graabak and Jens Luraas Oftebro finished one-two in the Nordic combined individual Gundersen large hill/10km event of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Tuesday.

Graabak, who also won a silver in the individual Gundersen normal hill/10km event, stormed to the 10km finish line in 27 minutes and 13.3 seconds for the gold while his teammate Oftebro came second in 27:13.7.

Graabak, 30, was crowned in the event at Sochi 2014 but finished 10th at PyeongChang 2018.

"I passed him and I just said to him, 'Come on, Jens, let's go', because I could feel we had really good skis and we had the opportunity," said Graabak about working with Olympic debutant Oftebro.

"Jens had the perfect build-up to the finish, and when we were going into the final few hundred meters I considered him the toughest opponent," Graabak noted. "I got the better position into the last corner and that's the thing that saved me. If he had been totally on my tail it would have been hard to beat him."

Japan's Akito Watabe claimed the bronze in 27:13.9.

"It's one of the hardest races in my career. But it was fun. This season was so hard for me, no podium in the World Cup so far. I tried my best and it's good to have a medal today," said Watabe.

Jarl Magnus Riiber, also from Norway, led after the jumping before getting lost on the course and eventually finishing eighth.

"I was really sorry to hear that Riiber was going in the wrong turn. Normally he should have just cruised to the gold medal," said Oftebro.

Zhao Jiawen, the only Chinese athlete in the competition, finished 47th in 36:41.1.