Harri Olli is back. The Finn with the varying performances surprised positively on Wednesday in Klingenthal. The 26-year-old won the qualification with a jump of 137.5 m (129.4 points), ahead of Germany's Michael Neumayer (120.4 points) and Martin Schmitt, who made his comeback in the World Cup and already showed strong jumps in training. The break and the about 40 training jumps on a K 90 hill in France seem to have worked well for the 32-year-old and he has to be reckoned with again. He stood in the "leader box" in a good temper and obviously relieved.

Also Pascal Bodmer showed a good performance again. The 19-year-old finished fifh, behind David Zauner from Austria. Young Pole Grzegorz Mietus stood in the "leader box" for some time and was seventh, right behind World Champion Andreas Kuettel.

Under steady snowfall the pre-qualified jumpers had to start from two gates lower and could, apart from Adam Malysz (132.5 m),  not show very long jumps. Also Gregor Schlierenzauer, who won all five competitions in Klingenthal he participated in, could not get close to this distance with 127 m. Simon Ammann (129.5 m) and Anders Jacobsen (128.5 m) were a little better.

Bad fall of youngster Eisenbichler

Young German Markus Eisenbichler had a terrible debut in the World Cup. He fell in the qualification and remained lying motionless, but according to German coaches he already regained consciousness in the outrun. But still he was taken to the hospital.

The young German jumpers left a good impression. Tobias Bogner (9th), Maximilian Mechler (12th), Andreas Wank (15th) and Felix Schoft (20th) had good jumps over 120 m in the qualification. A total of seven Germans were in the Top 20. Only Stephan Leyhe missed the cut.

With only 59 jumpers - for example Johan Remen Evensen, Janne Ahonen, Dimitri Vassiliev and Thomas Morgenstern are not in Klingenthal - only nine athletes could not qualify for the competition. Among them all three Russians, the second string of Wolfgang Steiert's team. On the contrary both jumpers from the Ukraine, Volodymyr Boshchuk and Vitaliy Shumbarets, could qualify for the competition on Wednesday, 5:15 pm CET. The Finnish team lost Sami Niemi, who could already not keep up with the best Juniors of the world at the Championships in Hinterzarten.

Robert Kranjec did not take part in the qualification after he had dominated in training. The Slovene is in a great shape at the moment.

FISskijumping.com
02.02.2010 18:18

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