Eric Frenzel Wins Nordic Combined Normal Hill Gold Medal at Winter Olympics 2018

Germany's Eric Frenzel won gold in the Nordic combined normal hill event on Wednesday at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, while Akito Watabe of Japan took silver. 

The pair closed out the top two just as they did at Sochi in 2014, with Frenzel's winning time coming in at 24 minutes, 51.4 seconds and Watabe 4.8 seconds behind.

Austrian athlete Lukas Klapfer rounded out the podium places with a bronze medal.

The trio earned congratulations from the Olympics' official Twitter account:

Franz-Josef Rehrl topped the ski jumping round with 130.6 points, having achieved a distance of 112 metres.

As a result, he started the cross-country section with a 15-second lead over Jarl Magnus Riiber, but that advantage was quickly eaten up by the Norwegian. 

Rehrl was fifth by the halfway point, but he ultimately finished 13th.

Unlike in Sochi, Watabe out-jumped Frenzel this time around to secure an eight-second head-start on his rival, but it was not enough for him to take the victory. 

After 5 kilometres, Watabe, Frenzel and Klapfer comprised the leading pack along with Riiber, and the quartet—who finished in the top five behind Rehrl in the ski jump—stayed close together until the final kilometre of the race.

Frenzel and Watabe pulled away from their rivals, with a late push from the former in the final uphill section proving decisive.