Seefeld NC: Demong maintains 2nd place overall

By Published On: January 27th, 2008Comments Off on Seefeld NC: Demong maintains 2nd place overall

Bill Demong had the third-fastest 7.5 km race Sunday and finished sixth in a World Cup event shortened by poor weather. Demong held onto second place in the overall points. Johnny Spillane was 27th in a sprint won by Jason Lamy Chappuis of France.
SEEFELD, Austria — Bill Demong had the third-fastest 7.5 km race Sunday and finished sixth in a World Cup event shortened by poor weather. Demong held onto second place in the overall points. Johnny Spillane was 27th in a sprint won by Jason Lamy Chappuis of France.
    On Saturday, Demong had the second-fastest 7.5 to finish sixth in a nordic combined World Cup sprint. He protected his No. 2 spot in the World Cup overall standings. Spillane was 19th.
    The day had a mix of two competitions. After jumping for the sprint, with weather forecasts predicting nasty weather, athletes took one more jump to be used as part of the individual competition Sunday.
    In Saturday's sprint, Demong jumped to 13th place, putting him 74 seconds back to start the five-lap 7.5K. He tired at the end, winning a photo finish for sixth place with German Eric Frenzel. Demong was just 9.7 seconds back of Austrian Christoph Bieler, who won. Spillane had the eighth-fastest race and moved up 10 places, finishing 55.7 seconds back.
    "Bill had a really good race, and so did Johnny," Head Coach Lasse Ottesen said. "Bill spent two laps catching up to the leaders. He caught them in the third lap but then he began to tire and when it came to a sprint in the final section in the stadium, he just didn't have anything left.
    "He thought he might have gone too hard to close that big gap at the start. Maybe he should have cut five or six seconds on each of a couple laps rather than do it all in one lap," Ottesen said.
    After 14 combined events, Germany's Ronny Ackermann leads with 911 World Cup points. Demong has 701 and Spillane, in 13th place, has 272.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh