December 3, 2006 – Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) had the fourth-fastest 7.5K Sunday to overcome shaky jumping in the fog and move up to 14th place in a World Cup nordic combined sprint. Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) turned-in the sixth-fastest time and moved up 18 places to 26th.

Austrian Christoph Bieler, fifth in jumping, led a five-man charge to the finish, winning the sprint by 1.2 seconds over Finn Anssi Koivuranta with unheralded Frenchman Maxime Laheurte in third place, 4.6 seconds back.

Demong was 30th in the lone round of jumping on the 138-meter Olympic hill but scorched the three-lap course to grab his top-15 finish. Spillane, 2003 sprint world champion who is healthy after three seasons hobbled by sickness and injury, was 44th in the jumping but sixth-fastest in the 7.5K to advance to 26th.

The two Lillehammer competitions were moved from Trondheim because of poor snow condition and with the snow drought in central Europe continuing to plague ski venues, Coach Lasse Ottesen said Demong and Spillane would return home for training. The next World Cup is in two weeks, Dec. 16-17 at Ramsau, Austria.

“We’ll see what happens with Ramsau, if they get snow and can hold the event, but the guys need training. Their cross country is very strong, but they need more jump work – we had one day in which they got 12 jumps this week, and they moved forward, but they need some consistent training, not one good day and then more days of little or no jumping,” Ottesen said.

Meanwhile, World Cup-B begins next weekend in the United States with events Saturday and Sunday in Steamboat Springs, CO, followed by Dec. 15-16 in Park City and Soldier Hollow, UT, before concluding Dec. 20-21 in Lake Placid, NY.

WARSTEINER NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP
Lillehammer, NOR – Dec. 3, 2006
Sprint (1 round K138/7.5K race)
1. Christoph Bieler, Austria (5/16)
2. Anssi Koivuranta, Finland, (2/23) 1.2 seconds back
3. Maxime Laheurte, France, (4/19) 4.6
4. Hannu Manninen, Finland, (13/2) 4.7
5. Jason Lamy Chappuis, France, (9/8) 4.8
–
14. Bill Demong, Vermontville, NY, (30/4) 50.9
26. Johnny Spillane, Steamboat Springs, CO, (44/6) 1:26.8