Manninen scores third win of the season in front of home crowd

HANNU Manninen stormed clear of World Cup champion Jason Lamy Chappuis to capture his third Nordic combined World Cup win of the season in front of his home crowd in Lahti.

HOME WIN: Finland's Hannu Manninen celebrates his third victory of the season in front of his home crowd in Lahti (Getty Images)

The 31-year old finished second, behind Magnus Moan, on Friday in Finland but after starting 12th for the cross country leg, Manninen tracked down the leaders before sprinting clear to go one better on Saturday.

High winds in Finland meant the ski jump stage was cancelled and competitors' jumps from Thursday's race were used to decide staggering for the 10km cross country stage.

And while Austria's Felix Gottwald could only manage fifth, despite setting the fastest cross country time in Friday's race, he scored silver on Saturday, recovering from 29th place to finish second, 28.4 behind the Finn.

Meanwhile, Lamy Chappuis extended the celebration of his overall title with bronze, edging out Austria's Mario Stecher and Moan at the death.

With one race remaining in Oslo next weekend, Lamy Chappuis has the World Cup title in the bag on 1055 with Gottwald second on 799 and Germany's Eric Frenzel third on 688 after finishing 18th in Finland.

Manninen's victory takes the Finn up to eighth on 474, despite having only entered six of 18 World Cup events this season.