Eric Frenzel pictured competing in Lahti earlier this month ©Getty Images

Olympic champion Eric Frenzel won for a second successive year at the International Ski Federation Nordic Combined World Cup in Trondheim after edging a thrilling battle with Japanese rival Akito Watabe today.

Watabe held a big lead after a mammoth large hill ski jump on the Norwegian course.

He leaped 132 metres for a point-score of 139.5, which equated to a 12 second head start on the rest of the field.

Austrians Franz-Josef Rehrl and Mario Seidl placed second and third after the opening section.

Frenzel started fourth with a 27 second deficit to make-up.

The German began fast and caught Watabe at the front of the field after 5.2 kilometres of the 10km cross country.

He appeared visibly tired at that stage, though, and the Japanese star tried valiantly to break clear.

Akito Watabe, pictured at the Olympics, led after the ski jumping but was unable to maintain his advantage ©Getty Images
Akito Watabe, pictured at the Olympics, led after the ski jumping but was unable to maintain his advantage ©Getty Images

He almost built a small gap on the final climb before Frenzel produced a trademark sprint finish to overhaul him and win in 24min 09.0sec.

There was another thrilling battle for third place.

Fabian Riessle won it to take bronze, 28.8 seconds behind the winner.

His German team-mate Johannes Rydzek was just one hundredth of a second behind in fourth.

Joergen Graabak, the home hope from Norway, was another four hundredth further back in fifth.