Daiki Ito emphasized impressively that he is in a great shape this summer. After the sixth place in Hinterzarten, the 24-year-old Japanese won at the "Tremplin Le Praz" in Courchevel relatively clear with 256.3 points ahead of the Austria duo Thomas Morgenstern and qualification winner David Zauner, who shared the second place with 249.1 points.
 
"I like the hill here in Courchevel. I did a lot of testing concerning my boots and bindings. Compared to the form I had two months ago, the victory here is great. My secret was that I didn't think too much", said Ito.
 
The winner from Hinterzarten, Adam Malysz, finished fourth. The Pole was leading after first round, but could not keep up with the Top 3 in the final round.
 
"I'm very happy that I could repeat my good performances from the training in the competition. This is the first podium finish of my career. It's even better to share this with Thomas", Zauner told. And his teammate added: "I didn't expect that Adam would let the lead slip away."
 
Morgenstern: The performance counts, not the equipment
 
After two competitions, Morgenstern is now in the lead of the FIS GP ranking with 160 points, ahead of Malysz (150 points) and Ito (140 points). "It's been a while since my last competition in a leader's bib. This gives me extra motivation and self-confidence", said Morgenstern who broke his boot in the first round. "That was difficult, but I had my best jump then with the new boot", told the Austrian. "Summer is the time for experiments. but at the end the performance counts and not the equipment."
 
Zografski becoming this summer's sensation

The sensation of the day was obviously Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski who achieved the best result of his career as fifth. He was already in the Top 20 in Hinterzarten. His coaches Joachim Winterlich and Emil Zografski are working with a huge talent, Zografski is only 17 years old.
 
Pavel Karelin was sixth and as the only Russian in the final round he was by far the best athlete of the hosts of the Olympic Games in 2014. Matti Hautamaeki was the best jumper from Finland as seventh, Simon Ammann came in eighth, Michael Neumayer was tenth.
 
Ito and Malysz close to hill record

The spectators at the Olympic hill of 1992 saw an entertaining competition with long jumps already in the first round. Ito landed on 133.5 m, only one meter short of the hill record held by Gregor Schlierenzauer, Malysz jumped 134 m. In the final round the jumps were not that long and so Schlierenzauer, who will take part in the competition in Wisla next weekend, is still the hill-record holder.

Peter Prevc was the best of the Slovenian team Georg Spaeth made it to the final round and scored one point as 30th. At least one point for his self-confidence - it's possible to reach the Top 30 again.
 
Only one Norwegian in the final

Just like in Hinterzarten, the young Austrians again had to learn it the hard way, but still they reached the second round. At the end David Unterberger, Lukas Mueller and Andreas Strolz finished 25th, 28th and 29th.
 
After their great performance in Hinterzarten the Polish team was not that strong this time. Besides Malysz, Dawid Kubacki (11th), Krzysztof Mietus (14th) and Stefan Hula (22nd) could score points. The best athlete for the French hosts was Vincent Descombes Sevoie as 21st.
 
Kuettel not in shape before home event

The list of famous names who disappointed at the Olympic hill was long. Bjoern Einar Romoeren was last. It was not a good day for the whole Norwegian team, after it didn't go well already in the qualification. Anders Bardal was also not in the Top 30 so Tom Hilde was the last Norwegian in the second round. Hilde finished eighth - a big disappoitment for the team of head coach Mika Kojonkoski.
 
World Champion Andreas Kuettel is still completely out shape only a couple of days before the competition in Einsiedeln on "his" hill. The Swiss landed on the 49th place. Noriaki Kasai, Robert Kranjec, Fumihisa Yumoto and Andreas Wank did not make the cut for the final. Summer is also the time for tinkerers, so more established athletes might have problems this time of year than in winter.

FISskijumping.com
Created at: 13.08.2010 20:13 / os

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