Minja Korhonen and Heta Hirvonen were able to celebrate gold in the team sprint.
13.2. 23: 52 • Updated 13.2. 23:56
The combined World Championships in Youth began in Lake Placid in Finland. Finnish team Minja Korhonen and Heta Hirvonen grabbed gold from a team sprint.
The hill was jumped in foggy and very challenging conditions. Hirvonen jumped 81 meters for the longest launch of the whole group, but style points and wind reductions left Finland behind Germany.
During Korhonen’s jump, snow was already pursuing. The Finn once had to leave the boom to wait for the wind conditions to stabilize. Korhonen stretched the 77 -meter jump in a difficult place and raised Finland by ten seconds before Germany.
At the ski section, the athletes skied three 1.5-kilometer loops. Finns immediately skied from others to the landscape. When Hirvonen released Korhonen to the anchorage, the difference to the coming back was already half a minute.
This allowed the Finns to celebrate the World Cup gold with an overwhelming performance. Slovenia eventually came second with about a minute left. The bronze was taken by Germany.
17-year-old Korhonen, despite his young age, is already one of the tops of his sport. Last year, he won his first gold in the youth competition.
This season, Korhonen has once reached the World Cup prize podium when he was third in the Ramsau Mass Start.
Hirvonen, a year younger than Korho, was recently eleventh in the Seefeld World Cup, which is his best investment at adult level.