SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Simon Ammann is in a top shape again towards the end of the season. The Swiss celebrated his 20th World Cup victory of his career at the final event of the 86th Lahti Ski Games. The 29-year-old won at the Salpausselkae-hill with a total of 286.8 points ahead of Andreas Kofler from Austria (282.3 points) and German Severin Freund (280.0 points).

"I had a great competition today and I'm very satisfied with my performance. The victory would have been possible, but unfortunately I jumped too far in the final and so I couldn't make a telemark. I was much too high. So Simon was more fortunate today. Now I'm looking forward to Planica and I will go there with a positive feeling", Kofler said after his seventh podium finish.

Freund: "Difficult to remain on top"

It was the fifth podium finish this season for Severin Freund. And Freund is a man for the future and can be counted on. He keeps his nerves and shows consistent performances. "This was a good competition. It's nice that it continues like that also after the World Championships in Oslo. My goal for the upcoming season is to keep this level. It's always easier to get on top, than to remain there", he said.

The best of Freund's teammates was Richard Freitag as 14th, Martin Schmitt lost his chances for a better result with a fall in the final round and was 29th. Michael Neumayer was 26th.

Bardal narrowly missed the podium

Anders Bardal was the best Norwegian and missed the podium by only 1.5 points. But the winner of the qualification could beat overall World Cup winner Thomas Morgenstern who was fifth, ahead of his teammate Martin Koch.

Johan Remen Evensen (7th), Gregor Schlierenzauer (8th), Kamil Stoch (9th), Matti Hautamaeki and Daiki Ito (both 10th) completed the Top Ten. Roman Koudelka was the best of the Czech team as 12th. The great Adam Malysz could not achieve a top result in his last competition in Lahti - was finished 15th.

Janne Ahonen: A great career is history

The career of Janne Ahonen ended one jump earlier than planned. The 33-year-old local hero could not qualify for the final round as 34th in his last competition. It was not a perfect goodbye in front of his fans for one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time.

Janne Ahonen's career was absolutely great. He was on the podium 108 times, achieved five victories of the 4-Hills-Tournament and won ten medals at World Championships. Nobody was better in these categories then the Finn who retires after 371 World Cup competitions.
 
Just a reminder: Ahonen made his first appearance in the World Cup on December 13th, 1992 in Ruhpolding. Back then he was competing against athletes like Masahiko Harada, Espen Bredesen, Jens Weissflog, Ernst Vettori, Dieter Thoma and Jiri Parma. All of them are ski jumping legends and Janne Ahonen is for sure one of them.

In the overall World Cup ranking Malysz lost his third place to Kofler. At the season final in Planica next weekend two individual and one team competition will take place.

FISskijumping.com
13.03.2011 16:53

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