SAPPORO, Japan -- Defending champion Kristian Hammer of Norway overcame gusting winds and wet snow Sunday as he surged past seven competitors in the cross-country ski race to win the 15th World Cup Nordic Combined event of the season.
Hammer, eighth in Saturday's ski jumping, had to start 1 minute, 39 seconds behind the leader, Jaakko Tallus of Finland, under time differences converted from the results at Mount Okura's large hill.
The 24-year-old from Bardu sped past compatriot Bjarte Engen Vik and Germany's Marco Baacke before surging into the leading group of three in the final lap at the 2.25-mile Sapporo Cross-Country Course of Mount Shirahata.
Following a dead-heat among the trio, including Finland's Samppa Lajunen and Felix Gottwald of Austria, Hammer took the lead while negotiating the final curve and spurted ahead to finish in 38 minutes, 08.2 seconds, edging Lajunen by a mere 0.8 and Gottwald by 1.4 seconds.
"I kind of like Sapporo and its Mount Okura, which I believe is one of the best jumping hills in the world, as well as this cross-country course," Hammer said.
Hammer triumphed in the event a year ago for his first career
victory in the main tour he had joined six weeks earlier after
winning four second-tier World Cup-B events in the first half of
the 1999-2000 season.
The victory Sunday was Hammer's third this season.
Lajunen, last season's overall World Cup champion, was seeking
his first title of the season. It was his third World Cup runner-up
finish this season.
"I don't jump very well this season. ... But I feel the difference always is small," said Lajunen, who also finished second to Engen Vik after overtaking Gottwald near the finish in the World Championships two weeks ago.
"But the small things matter ... and I just want to praise
Kristian and congratulate him for the hard-fought victory,"
Lajunen said.
Gottwald said the windy conditions were a factor in the final
stretch.
"I lost balance and fell while covering the final uphill,
losing a few seconds," he said. "Then the strong headwinds before
the finish kind of bothered me."
Gottwald, the World Cup standings leader, was seeking his second
straight victory and fifth overall for the season. He last won a
World Cup at Nayoro, also in northern Japan, on Thursday,
Engen Vik finished fourth, followed by Baacke and Tallus.
The 30-year-old Vik, the world and Olympic champion, was seeking
his third World Cup victory of the season and 27th overall.
Todd Lodwick, the runner-up here a year ago, was the top
American, finishing in 10th place.
Among skiers from host Japan, Daito Takahashi, who was second in
the jumping portion, finished 4:21.7 behind Hammer for a remote
25th.
The Nordic Combined will now move to Oslo, Norway.
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