January 10, 2004 – Finland's Hannu Manninen and Samppa Lajunen finished 1-2 Saturday night in a nordic combined World Cup sprint and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO), chasing what would have a U.S. record fourth straight top-3, finished sixth.

Manninen, turning in the fastest 7.5K time in the five-lap race, overtook Lajunen and finished 3.9 seconds ahead of his teammate, who won three gold medals at the 2002 Olympics.

Lodwick was third in jumping but had some waxing problems and was only 17th-fastest in the race, dropping to sixth overall, 30.4 seconds back. Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) returned to the World Cup after skipping the three-event Grand Prix to train in Utah, had his best event of the winter, finishing 21st with Carl Van Loan (Webster, NH) moving up eight spots in the race to 37th.

“It's hard on this course to keep your speed if you have grabby skis, and I talked with OJ [Ole-Johan Oyester, wax tech] about the problem. No doubt in my mind he'll make somebody pay in [Sunday's] race,” Lodwick said. “I was good on the uphills but was losing it on the downhills.

“Still, my jumping – even with the low speed and tailwind – went well again, so that's good. I'll get 'em [Sunday],” he said.

Head Coach Bard Elden said, “After three podiums, you want that fourth in a row…and it wasn't to be tonight. But Todd's obviously skiing well and Johnny came back with a strong result, so that's good for his confidence.”

Saturday's event was picked up from Bischofshofen, Austria. The weekend visit to this resort village outside Innsbruck concludes Sunday with an individual event, two K90 jumps and a 15K race.

Results:

K90/7.5K Sprint 1. Hannu Manninen, Finland, 14/1 2. Samppa Lajunen, Finland, (4/5) 3.9 seconds back 3. Georg Hettich, Germany, (2/8) 9.0 4. Magnus Moan, Norway, (24/2) 24.9 5. Sebastien Haseney, Germany, (22/3) 27.6 – 6. Todd Lodwick, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (3/17) 30.4 21. Johnny Spillane, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (29/18) 1:35.1 37. Carl Van Loan, Webster, N.H., (45/23) 2:26.4