Maninnen wins another World Cup; Lodwick and Spillane in top 10

Maninnen wins another World Cup; Lodwick and Spillane in top 10{mosimage}Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, finished fourth Sunday and, for the second time in 24 hours, Johnny Spillane (also of Steamboat) stormed out of the 20s to the top-10 finish in a nordic combined individual World cup event won by World Cup leader Hannu Manninen of Finland.

Manninen was 10th in jumping and had the fastest time in the six-lap, 15K race to win by 3.9 seconds over Austrian Felix Gottwald. Germany’s Ronny Ackermann was third with Lodwick – fourth in jumping – finishing fourth, 21 seconds back. Spillane was 20th in jumping but kept moving forward during the race to finish seventh, 1:12.4 off the pace.

“I’m definitely feeling better,” said Lodwick, who came to Europe two weeks ago nursing a cold he acquired during the Christmas holidays. “I think I just tried to do too much…but I’ve been able to get more training, and my jumping has been excellent, so it’s coming together…

“I’ve been close. I think I’m maybe 800-1,200 meters from winning one of these,” said Lodwick, who has six World Cup victories in his career.

Spillane, who moved up 17 places to finish eighth during a 7.5K race in the sprint event Saturday, again decided to turn the frustration of lackluster jumping on Seefeld’s 100-meter hill into a strong cross country race. “He was so unhappy,” Lodwick said, “and Johnny wasn’t going to settle for being back there. He was flying.”

After nine World Cup contests, Manninen – having won four of the last five events – is the points leader with 748. Ackermann is second (680) with Lodwick third and Spillane eighth.

The Ski Team heads to Lillehammer this week for a mini-training camp and then resumes World Cup competition Jan. 22-23 in Liberec, Czech Republic, before heading to Japan.

WARSTEINER NORDIC COMBINED WORLD CUP
Seefeld, AUT – Jan. 9, 2005
HS100/15K

1. Hannu Manninen, Finland, (10/1)

2. Felix Gottwald, Austria, (7/4) 2.9 seconds back

3. Ronny Ackermann, Germany, (3/14) 15.3

4. Todd Lodwick, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (4/11) 21.0

5. Sebastien Haseney, Germany, (26.2) 51.2

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7. Johnny Spillane, Steamboat Springs, Colo., (20/7) 1:12.4

23. Bill Demong, Vermontville, N.Y., (33/15) 2:31.6

34. Eric Camerota, Park City, Utah, (39/27) 3:45.7