Liberec - France are leading today's Nordic combined event for teams, followed by Austria and Finland, after a bizarre changing room accident buried the American medal ambitions during lunchtime ski jumping.
Headed by Todd Lodwick, who had taken two golds in individual events at the Nordic Worlds outside Liberec, the US were looking for another triumph in the team event. But Bill Demong was not allowed to jump after he had lost his bib with his number.
The Americans did not give up and continued in the jumping race, despite knowing that the massive hole their total team score was beyond remedy.
"It is unbelievable. I've heard in the end he found it somewhere in his boot," said Czech skier Miroslav Dvořák. Later on it turned out that Demong had his mandatory number bib under his ski suit.
Czech chances still good
The Czech team were luckier. Aleš Vodseďálek only landed at the 111 m mark, but Dvořák flew 11 m farther, followed by Tomáš Slavík's and Pavel Churavý's solid performance of 120 m and 119 m, respectively.
This puts Czechs on a good seventh position before this afternoon's 4 x 5 km relay, with a handicap of only 43 seconds. Austria will start 8 s after France, Finland's handicap is 13 s, Germany's 17 s and Norway's 42 s. Czechs will at first have no competitors breathing down their necks, as number eight Russia will have a handicap of more than 2 minutes.
With only three executed jumps out of four and a handicap of more than 3 minutes, the Americans are the last to hit the track. It remains unclear whether they will compete in the cross-country part of the event.
Scores after jumps:
1. France 470,6 points (127+127+120.5+116.5 m); 2. Austria 464.8 p (handicap 8 s); 3. Finland 460.5 p (handicap 13 s); ...7. Czech Republic 438.3 p (handicap 43 s).
