Milan-Cortina: Nordic combined, gold for Norway, Costa 13th

Trento, 11 February (LaPresse) – The climb up the Poligono circuit at Lake Tesero, with the snow now “devoured”, proved decisive, putting even the best cross-country skiers in the Olympic Nordic combined event, which began this morning with the jumping session in Predazzo, to the test. At the end of a battle of strength and tactics, the gold went to the favourite, Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro. Silver went to Austria’s Johannes Lamparter, while Finland’s Eero Hirvonen took home the bronze. Italy’s Samuel Costa put in a good performance, staging a surprising comeback to finish in 13th place. Another Italian, Aaron Kostner, finished 16th, while veteran Alessandro Pittin was unable to go beyond 19th place.