February 25, 2007 (Sapporo, Japan) – Finland picked up its second gold medal in nordic combined at the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships when it won the team event Sunday by nearly a half-minute. U.S. skiers were ninth.

World Cup leader and newly crowned sprint world champion Hannu Manninen’s powerful breakaway from Germany’s Bjoern Kircheisen in the final two kilometers lifted Finland to victory in 49:14.9. Germany was second and Norway third.

The U.S. – Bryan Fletcher (Steamboat Springs, CO), Johnny Spillane (also Steamboat), Eric Camerota (Park City, UT) and Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) – was eighth after jumping and dropped back one spot during the race in which each skier went 5Ks, finishing two seconds behind Japan.

“It was a decent day on the jumping hill even though conditions were tough. Sapporo’s always windy for jumping – and it was for our second round, so the comp just took a long time,” Head Coach Lasse Ottesen said.

“We had expectations, thought we had a chance to be in the top six, which would be an excellent result for these guys, considering that except for Johnny and Bill it’s a young team. Bryan’s 20 and has never been at this level, Eric just turned 22…and these are his first Worlds. And we just didn’t get it done in the race.”

But, Ottesen said, there are things to be gained from the team event. “I’m a glass-half-full guy, and I’m taking away positives out of this. We didn’t expect to be challenging for a medal in the team event, but we had hoped to be fighting for top six. So, we’ll build on this and keep looking forward.”

The next nordic combined event is the individual – two rounds of jumping on the normal hill at Miyanomori – next Saturday.

2007 FIS Nordic Worlds Ski Championships
Okurayama Jumping Hill/Shirahata – Sapporo, JPN – Feb. 25, 2007
Nordic Combined Team (LH Jumping/4x5K)

1. Finland (Koivuranta/Ryynaenen/Tallus/Manninen), (1/2)
2. Germany (Haseney/Ackermann/Edelmann/Kircheisen), (3/1) 28.4 seconds back
3. Norway (Klemetsen/Rian/Tande/Moan), (2/4) 1:12.0
4. Austria, (4/3) 1:12.4
5. Switzerland, (7/5) 3:41.8
–
9. USA (Fletcher/Spillane/E. Camerota/Demong), (8/7) 5:19.7

For complete results click here.