Austria won the team skiflying event in Oberstdorf on Saturday. Andreas Kofler, Martin Koch, Wolfgang Loitzl and Gregor Schlierenzauer won with a total of 1560.4 points.

The Austrian armada dominated the whole competition and the victory was never in danger. The traditionally strong skiflyers from Norway, Tom Hilde, Johan Remen Evensen, Anders Jacobsen and Bjoern Einar Romoeren, took the second place (1539.2 points). Finland, with Matti Hautamaeki, Kalle Keituri, Janne Ahonen and Harri Olli, finished third with 1505.3 points.

Neumayer in good form

Without three of their best, Martin Schmitt, Pascal Bodmer and Andreas Wank, the German team was fourth (1420.9 points). Maximlian Mechler and Severin Freund could not really fill in the gap. But the Germans saw the positive aspects of the competition: "It was fun today, that was not the case at the Kulm. I'm looking forward to the upcoming weeks", said Michael Neumayer. He and Michael Uhrmann showed good jumps and can hope for a good result in Sunday's individual competition. Neumayer had a great jump in the first round with 216.5 m.

Schlierenzauer's final jump causes uproar

In absence of the Russians, the Swiss and the Japanese A-team, Slovenia finished fifth, mainly due to Robert Kranjec who jump on unbelievable 226 m in the final (hill record of Harri Olli is at 225.5 m), but fell after the landing. Full of adrenalin, he stood up again right away and celebrated. This jump does not count as a new hill record. Already in the first round Kranjec landed beyond the 200 m mark (207 m).

The last jumper of the competition, Gregor Schlierenzauer, caused an uproar. Before the world's best skiflyer the jury decided to reduce the inrun length. The new FIS skijumping rules, used at the FIS Team Tour and the Nordic Tournament, allow to do that.

But then the Austrian landed already after 169.5 m and was angry about that. The Austrians believed that there was some snow in the inrun track and so he had no chance to show a good jump. A trial jumper should have acted as "snow plough", the winners comlained. Schlierenzauer got 31.5 bonus points for jumping from a lower gate. But due to the large lead the team won the competition in spite of the short jump.

For the Polish team, this event was a disappointment. There's not much besides Adam Malysz at the moment. The team of head coach Lukasz Kruczek was seventh, behind the Czech Republic. Lukasz Rutkowski, Jakub Kot and Marcin Bachleda could not show jumps over 200 m. Only Malysz landed beyond this mark with 202 m in the final round.

FISskijumping.com
30.01.2010, 16:14

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