SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Double victory for Finland in Finland - What a day for the host country! Ville Larinto celebrated his first ever victory in the World Cup in the second competition of the season. The 20-year-old (240.9 points) was only 0.1 points ahead of his teammate Matti Hautamaeki. For the 29-year-old this was the 36th podium finish of his career, the first since January 2009.

Winner Ville Larinto (FIN) in Kuopio

Last season was terrible for Larinto. He was only 67th in the overall World Cup. But his new coach Pekka Niemelae gave new life to jumps of his athlete. The first victory on home turf - what more can you ask for? "It feels amazing. It was a difficult summer for me with many problems and I worked hard for the winter. It's great that two Finnish guys were the best today. I'm also happy for Matti that he could do so well in his home town", said today's winner who proved to be a real team player.

Simon Ammann finished third and repeated his result from Kuusamo. He is the only athlete who was on the podium twice. The Swiss reached a total of 238.3 points.

Day of close results

On this day of close results Andreas Kofler, the winner of the opening event, missed the podium by only 0.6 points. The highlight of the competition was set by Germany's Severin Freund. He got good head wind in his final jump and used the updrift to show the longest jump of the day with 131.5 m. At the end the jump was enough for place 13.

A little later Thomas Morgenstern showed a similar jump. With his 130 m the athlete from Carinthia moved up from tenth after the first round to fifth. The best Japanese was Daiki Ito, the winner of the Summer Grand Prix, as sixth. Tom Hilde was best Norwegian as seventh, followed by Michael Neumayer who achieved a top result for Germany. Adam Malysz was the best of his team as ninth.

Jumpers from seven nations made it in the Top Ten - this shows the good work in the various teams. For Gregor Schlierenzauer things are not going that well at the moment - he was only 16th at the Puijo-Hill and was only fifth best Austrian behind Kofler, Morgenstern, Manuel Fettner (11th) and Martin Koch (12th).

Stoch on the up - Matura and Karelin good

Kamil Stoch, who jumped very strong in summer, showed some improvement. He was 20th this evening. But that was it for the Polish team. Two athletes in the Top 30 is not result like in summer. As 18th, Jan Matura achieved a Top 20 result for the Czech team. Pavel Karelin (19th) could do that for Russia.

The results were very close in the first round. A little more headwind or a not a good telemark could make a difference of ten ranks. The 16th after the first round, Severin Freund, only had 5.5 points more than the 28th, Jakub Janda. And the Czech even jumped 0.5 m longer than the German. It was a close fight for good results in Kuopio.

Ahonen and Romoeren were out early

And with these close results, some top jumpers could not reach the final of the best 30. Janne Ahonen, who doesn't really like the facility in central Finland, Bjoern Einar Romoeren (NOR), Martin Schmitt (GER), Kalle Keituri (FIN) and Andreas Kuettel (SUI) could not qualify for the final round.

Kofler wears "Yellow" in Lillehammer

Andreas Kofler remains in the lead of the overall World Cup ranking with 150 points ahead of Larinto (140 points) and Hautamaeki and Morgenstern (both 125 points). The Austrian can wear the "Yellow Bib" again on Friday in Lillehammer.

FISskijumping.com
01.12.2010 19:14

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