Norway celebrates: Lurås Oftebro takes first World Cup victory

Einar Lurås Oftebro delivered a powerful performance in the cross-country leg and on Saturday recorded the first World Cup victory of his career in Otepää.

Because strong winds prevented the scheduled ski jumping round earlier on Saturday, the provisional round from Thursday was used as the starting order. That left Lurås Oftebro in 12th place before the cross-country race, 36 seconds behind leader Julian Schmid. After an aggressive and very strong race in the tracks, the 27-year-old Norwegian crossed the line half a second ahead of German star Johannes Rydzek. Andreas Skoglund finished third and Jens Lurås Oftebro came in fourth. Overall leader Johannes Lamparter of Austria placed seventh.

The win marks a milestone for Lurås Oftebro and a big day for Norway in the Nordic combined World Cup in Otepää.