The Nordic combined athletes kicked off the competitive program at the 47th FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships with the mixed team event. For Slovenia, Taja Pavec opened the competition with a jump of 90 meters, followed by Lovro Dovžan with 86 meters, Urban Zajec recorded the longest jump among Slovenians with 90.5 meters, and Tia Malovrh landed at 89.5 meters. After the ski jumping portion of the event, Slovenia secured the 4th place out of nine teams. Germany led with a 36-second advantage over Japan, followed by Norway with a 38-second gap, while Slovenia trailed by 1 minute and 11 seconds.
Austria closely followed with a three-second deficit behind Slovenia, France lagged by four seconds more, Finland was in seventh place with a gap of one minute and 31 seconds, Italy followed with ten seconds more, and the United States lagged by two minutes and 7 seconds in ninth place.
Photo: Bobo
The skiing part of the competition didn't start well for Slovenia. Lovro Dovžan was already struggling after the first of two laps of 2.5 km, and upon handing over the relay to Tia Malovrh, he collapsed from complete exhaustion. Slovenia handed over the relay in 9th place with a deficit of 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind the leading Germany. Tia Malovrh then gained 14 seconds against Germany over the 2.5 km distance, but Slovenia's position remained unchanged. Teja Pavec ran third, losing seven seconds to Germany, and Slovenia remained in ninth place. Germany, with Richard Stenzel, Anne Haeckel, Ronja Loh, and Tristan Sommerfeldt, crossed the finish line first, followed by Japan with a gap of just under half a minute and Norway securing bronze with a gap of over a minute. Austria won the sprint for fourth place ahead of France, Finland finished sixth, followed by the United States in seventh and Italy in eighth. Urban Zajec ran the final leg for Slovenia, but the team finished in ninth place, nearly 5 minutes behind the winners.
Post-race statement:
Teja Pavec: "In terms of results, we would have liked to finish a bit higher, but I know that we all gave our best efforts. I think each of us can be satisfied with our performance. The skis were prepared well, in my opinion, but it's difficult to compare with the other teams."
