LAHTI, Finland (AP) Eric Frenzel of Germany won the Nordic combined World Cup season title for a third straight year by finishing 23rd in an event won by Akiro Watabe of Japan on Friday.
Frenzel won the season title on the ski jump, because Bernhard Gruber of Austria, second overall, didn't enter, and third-place Jan Schmid of Norway had a failed jump at the Lahti Ski Games.
Frenzel was 20th after the jump, and a leisurely 28th on the 10-kilometer cross-country race to tally an unassailable 228 points in the season standings, with two races left.
Watabe, starting eighth in the ski race, stayed in front of recent world champion Johannes Rydzek of Germany to win his first World Cup of the season by three seconds. Rydzek's teammate, Fabian Riessle, was third.
Watabe climbed over Gruber to second in the overall standings.
