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Kokslien leads Norwegians to clean sweep and halfpipe stars book tickets to Sochi

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14/01/2014

Norway’s Mikko Kokslien produced one of the comebacks of the season at the weekend’s Nordic Combined World Cup stage in Chaux-Neuve (FRA). A brilliant cross-country ski saw him emerge overall winner, after finishing just 19th in the ski-jumping; it was his first individual victory in over a year. Magnus Krog and Joergen Graabak completed an all-Norwegian podium, edging out World Cup leader Frenzel.

The following day, Kokslien, competing alongside Graabak, had to settle for second place as the Norway II sprint team was pipped to victory by Germany II (Tino Edelmann and Fabian Riessle) by a margin of 0.4 seconds. In a thrilling contest, Germany I (Johannes Rydzek and Eric Frenzel) completd the podium line-up.

Heavy snow made for difficult conditions at the Halfpipe World Cup in Breckenridge (USA) at the weekend, but that failed to deter local duo David Wise and Maddie Bowman, who prevailed in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively to book their places on the US team for Sochi 2014.

In the men's event Wise took gold with 89 points, 3.8 ahead of Canadian Mike Riddle, with Kevin Rolland of France third. That pushed the American up to ninth in the overall standings in which Canada’s Justin Dorey remains top.

The women's event saw Bowman score 84 points, 1.2 ahead of Japan's Ayana Onozuka and six in front of third-placed Australian Amy Sheehan. She now lies just six points behind overall leader Devin Logan in the overall standings.

Ski halfpipe will make its debut on an Olympic programme. And who better to give you the lowdown on this new Olympic event than the King of Style himself, Mr Kevin Rolland?