November 27, 2011 (Kuusamo, Finland) – The strong, gusty winds that swirl around Northern Finland played a major role in defining events of the weekend past, but in the end, the athletes wrote the finishing script.

The opening weekend of the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup season is now in the books and the first athlete to be adorned by the yellow bib is German star Tino Edelmann picking up where he left off last season. Edelmann took a third place last Friday, then won the second competition on Saturday at windy Kuusamo, Finland.

Not only did Edelmann shine, but Friday’s event marked a first-time win for young Norwegian skier Magnus Krog, a 24-year-old newcomer from Hoeydalsmo in Telemark. While celebrating his surprise win Krog said he was more than a little surprised by his performance.

Most of Krog’s experience has come from grinding it out on the Continential Cup and this was his first-ever win. “It’s a huge honor for me to wear the yellow bib….” said Krog at the post-race press conference, “Of course I want to keep it it as long as possible, but I don’t think I am a contestant for the overall World Cup title.” He wore it only for one day, yet his win signals yet another strong contender in the sport.

In fact due to powerful winds, the jump competition on Saturday was cancelled, using Friday’s jump results in the trial to set the start for the 10km cross-country event. Edelmann had the longest jump of the trial jump with a 134.5 meter leap, giving him a 16-second start ahead of Finland’s Janne Ryynenen and France’s Maxime Laheurte and the rest of the field.

Edelmann proved the strongest athlete of the day, winning by eight seconds, but many of the largest cheers from the crowd were for Finnish star Ryynenen, who placed second, achieving his first podium result since 2008. Japan’s talented Akito Watabe took third. Edelmann said he was hoping for a top 20 performance pre-race, because his summer had been hampered by sickness. “I didn’t have a good summer as I was sick for a long time, that’s why my shape in cross-country is really bad right now. There is still a lot of work left to do,” he said.

The US Ski Team was lead by veteran Bill Demong who finished 2:38.2 back to take 19th place. He was followed by improving Bryan Fletcher in 20th, while Fletcher’s brother Taylor was 33rd.

“Solid start for Billy and Bryan. Also good for Taylor on the XC course,” commented US Head Coach Dave Jarrett who is now looking forward to next weekend. “Obviously with more normal jumping execution we can fight for the podium.  I think all four of these guys are fast enough and we are looking forward to a new comp in Lillehammer this weekend.

“Kuusamo is in the rear-view mirror now and we are moving onward. Hope to get some training jumps tomorrow and maybe Tuesday but the weather is very warm here and there is not much snow. We will see.”

In ski jumping action, no one was a bit surprised to have Austria sweep the top three places in Sunday’s tournament in Kuusamo. Andreas Kofler repeated his win from a year ago to nab the top spot by taking a total points of 264.2 and was followed in second by Gregor Schlierenzauer with 263.5 points while Thomas Morgenstern took third.

The powerful Austrian Eagles couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect way to open the season. The win was Kofler’s sixth World Cup victory. The Austrians also won the team competition on Saturday.

World Cup action in both combined and ski jumping resumes next weekend as the series heads to Lillehammer, Norway.

Day 1 results HERE.
Day 2 results  HERE.