February 28, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – The strong Austrian Nordic Combined squad of David Kreiner, Bernhard Gruber, Felix Gottwald and Mario Stecher were in fourth following the ski jumping event on the normal hill, but turned on the jets in the xc leg to take the gold medal with a time of 48:07.8 at the FIS Nordic World Skiing Championships on Monday.

The German squad showed its characteristic depth in claiming the silver with a team of Johannes Rydzek, Bjoern Kircheisen, Tino Edelmann and Eric Frenzel. Their jumping results put them starting only 13 seconds behind France and they used that to great advantage. They finished a breathtakingly close 0.4 seconds behind Austria in a sprint finish.

The French team led following the jumping with a huge 110.5-meter leap from Maxime LaHeurte setting a new hill record on the Midstubakken jump. Despite having a solid team with the likes of Francois Braud, Sebastien Laccroix and world cup leader Jason Lamy Chappuis, the French faltered in the xc portion and ended up in fifth behind the USA at 1:30.4 back. Norway took home the bronze with a total xc time of 48:48.4.

The US Team of Johnny Spillane, Bill Demong, Bryan Fletcher and Todd Lodwick picked up a lot of time in the xc race. Following the jumping they were one minute-six seconds back, but after the cross-country they were just 54.8 seconds back. Bryan Fletcher had the longest jump of the day for the Americans with a 101.5 meter leap.

Demong was successful at seriously eating into the deficit as the first US skier in the xc,. The Olympic large hill champion cut the margin all the way down to 29.6 seconds behind Germany with the fastest cross-country leg of the day.

Fletcher took the tag for the second leg and was matched up to Austria’s Bernhard Gruber. The rookie matched Gruber stride for stride through the first lap and into the second, rapidly closing the gap on third place France.

“Bill did a great job of catching up to the Austrians and I went out with a goal of just hanging with them and trying to move up to France,” said Fletcher. “I went out and the pace felt pretty easy and I could put in some effort to reel in France. Then Gruber just took off like an animal and I just didn’t have it.”

On the second of two laps, Fletcher led Gruber on a short herringbone uphill chasing France’s Sebastian Lacroix. They came within two ski lengths before the Frenchman took off. As the lap wore on, Gruber hit a new gear. He took off from Fletcher, attacking Lacroix and moving into the bronze position just 19 seconds off the lead.

His countryman Felix Gottwald was also up to the task on the third leg, crushing the field and moving Austria into the lead as Spillane moved the USA up past France and into fourth. But as Spillane handed off to Lodwick, they still a minute off the lead and 37 seconds out of the medals. Despite Lodwick skiing the fastest anchor leg and Norway’s Magnus Moan fading in the final lap, the defending World Champion Lodwick couldn’t quite close the gap enough, finishing 14 seconds out of bronze.

“It’s bitter sweet,” said Demong reflecting on a strong U.S. performance that just wasn’t quite enough. “We couldn’t medal but at the same time we’re still doing well. The impressive thing today is that we jumped better as a team. And Bryan just went for it. He led the Austrian who just took him at the end of the race. We’re growing the depth of our team.”

“I think everyone can be satisfied with what they did today,” said Spillane, who is returning from a knee injury. “It wasn’t as good as what we’re capable of but overall it was a pretty good day. Fourth place is always a little bit tough, but everybody did a good job.”

“It was a good day but not quite good enough,” said Head Coach Dave Jarrett. “We were hoping for medals but we put ourselves in a position to fight for medals, and that’s all you can ask. In the end we came up short. But it’s still good and something to be proud of. The service guys did a good job and the boys jumped well and skied well.

“But you have to take your hats off to the top three teams,” he added. “They were better and we have to keep working hard and we know the results will be there.”

Full results HERE.