SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Austria is ready. The first individual competition of the 2010/11 season in Kuusamo could be summarized with these words. Andreas Kofler won in the freezing cold of northern Finland with 331.2 points, followed by his teammate Thomas Morgenstern (328.3 points).

Andreas Kofler

Simon Ammann (310.1 points), who dominated last season, finished third and once again showed that he is a true pokerface. His performances so far didn't indicate that he would be able to achieve a podium result.

Kofler: A dream came true

It was the third World Cup victoriy for the 4-Hills-Tournament winner from Tyrol. With 143.5 m in the final he came close to Thomas Morgenstern, who showed the longest jump with 145.5 m."It was a perfect weekend. It couldn't have been any better. I was relaxed and enjoyed jumping because I was already good in training. I saw that Morgenstern jumped 145 m in the final and that was good because then I knew that long jumps are possible. A dream came true with this victory: I can wear the yellow bib for the first time in my career", said a happy winner.

Ammann is optimistic

"There's nothing better than starting the season with a podium result. This second place feels like a victory", said Morgenstern. The competition ended with a disappointment for Gregor Schlierenzauer. He was fourth after the first round and finished 14th.

Gregor Schlierenzauer

Ammann was a bit surprised by the good result, because he didn't jump that good in training. "I stayed calm and it went perfect for me today. I have no problems with my back at the moment and everything is on track", he told.

The Norwegian jumpers presented themselves in a great shape, just like the Finnish team, that had to start without Harri Olli and Janne Ahonen (follow link). Johan Remen Evensen was fourth, Tom Hilde seventh and also Anders Jacobsen was in the Top 10 as tenth. Matti Hautamaeki (5th) and Ville Larinto (6th) achieved top results for the Finns.

Also Japanese Daiki Ito (8th) and Poland's Adam Malysz (9th), who dominated in summer, were in the Top 10.

Only two Germans in the final

Best Slovene was youngster Peter Prevc as twelfth. Manuel Fettner finished on a good 10th place. The best of a disappointing German team was Michael Neumayer as 21st. Severin Freund also reached the final round and was 30th.

Jakub Janda and Roman Koudelka were the best of the Czech team as 17th and 18th. With Jan Matura a third jumper from the Czech Republic could score points.

Bad luck for the Italians today. Sebastian Colloredo and Andrea Morasse finished 31st and 32nd and closely missed the final round of the best 30.

Sebastian Colloredo

It also didn't go well for the Polish team. Adam Malysz was the only one in the second round. Three Polish jumpers could not qualify for the competition and Kamil Stoch and Stefan Hula didn't make it to the final. A setback for the team of head coach Lukasz Kruczek after they won the Nation's Cup of the Summer Grand Prix and sometimes had five jumpers in the Top 15.

FISskijumping.com
28.11.2010 15:13

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