Austria take Nordic combined team event lead but Germany threatening
Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - Austria started strongly in the Nordic combined large hill team event at the Pyeongchang Olympics with first place in the jumping portion, but world champions Germany are right on their heels.Mario Seidl (131 metres), Bernhard Gruber (136m), normal hill bronze medallist Lukas Klapfer (131m) and veteran Wilhelm Denifl (138.5m) amassed 469.5 points on the large hill.They take a slender six-second lead into the 4x5-kilometres cross country pursuit over the Germans, led by normal hill gold medallist Eric Frenzel and large hill winner Johannes Rydzek.Japan are 19 seconds off the pace in third and 2014 winners Norway are also in the fight for the medals, trailing by 27 seconds ahead of the cross country set for 7.20 pm local time (1020 GMT).