Record Victory for Norway’s Hagen
Nathalie Armbruster made a strong comeback with an impressive second place at the Viessmann FIS Nordic Combined World Cup in Oberhof. After being disqualified due to a suit violation at the World Cup in Otepää last weekend, she had to concede victory only to serial winner Ida Marie Hagen of Norway in the individual compact event.
Armbruster jumped 97.5 meters at the Kanzlersgrund, matching Hagen’s distance, and started the subsequent 5-kilometer cross-country race in the LOTTO Thüringen ARENA am Rennsteig in fourth place, holding a slim five-second advantage over Hagen, who had been fifth after the jumping segment. With a blistering first lap, the strong-skating Norwegian pushed straight to the front without much tactical maneuvering, took the lead, and cruised to her 24th individual World Cup victory—setting a record in women’s Nordic combined.
Behind her, Nathalie Armbruster thrilled the 3,700 spectators at the AXA Winter Weeks. Although the 20-year-old quickly had to let overall World Cup leader Hagen go, she ran her own race with smart tactics. Already on the first lap, she overtook Finland’s Minja Korhonen, who had started ahead of her, and then also the jumping winner Alexa Brabec (USA). Brabec had posted the longest jump of the day at 103.5 meters and initially tried to keep pace with winner Hagen on the course. That effort proved too demanding for the second-ranked athlete in the overall World Cup standings. Despite being known as a strong cross-country skier, Brabec was unable to stay with the fast-closing Armbruster and was eventually passed by Korhonen as well.
At the finish, Armbruster crossed the line 7.7 seconds behind Hagen. Third place went to Minja Korhonen (+14.6 seconds). “I’m incredibly happy in front of the home crowd—that means so much to me. That was my answer today,” said Armbruster after last week’s nerve-racking disqualification. The key, she emphasized, was the right race strategy: “I did it the way my feeling told me to. That it turned into second place for me feels like a victory.” National coach Florian Aichinger also praised Armbruster: “We rate this very highly. She put a lot of thought into things after last week—hats off.” He also thanked the organizers and fans: “Huge praise and thanks to Oberhof and the spectators. The support we get here is incredible.”
In addition to Armbruster’s second place, Jenny Nowak finished 11th, Trine Goepfert 22nd, Ronja Loh 23rd, Sofia Eggensberger 27th, and Maja Loh 29th.