SKI JUMPING. Two competitions - one result: the same three athletes were on the podium on Saturday in Hakuba than already on Friday - in the exact same order. This means that Tom Hilde leaves Japan with two victories.

This time the Norwegian won with 264.0 points, close ahead of Poland's Piotr Zyla (262.3 points), who was in the lead after the first round. The third place again went to local hero Taku Takeuchi (255.7 points). "That a Japanese was on the podium here, is also good for ski jumping in Japan", he said.

Zyla: "I was unbelievably nervous"

Zyla had a good lead after the first round, but Hilde was able to take the top spot with a great jump in the final round. "It was the first time that I was in the lead after the first round and I was unbelievably nervous before my second jump. I'm very satisfied today, of course especially with my first jump, that was really good."

Hilde: Perfect competition, great hill

Hilde was extremely happy about today's result. "It was a perfect competition, the conditions could not have been better. The jury did a very good job and the hill here in Hakuba is great", he told and added that "today it was a little bit more difficult than yesterday. If you win the day before by a relatively large margin than you have to be extra concentrated and jump extra aggressive."

Fannemel and Zyla shootings-stars of Hakuba

With Anders Fannemel anoher Norwegian finished fourth, ahead of the best Russian Denis Kornilov. With Jurij Tepes (7th), Michael Neumayer (9th) and Junshiro Kobayashi (10th) three more athletes were in the Top 10 who already achieved that on Friday.

Poland showed a strong team performance today on the Olympic hill of 1998. Besides Zyla also Krzysztof Mietus (6th) and Tomasz Byrt (11th) were among the best. The shooting-stars of the days in Japan were for sure Zyla and Fannemel who moved up to world class and achieved the best results of their careers. The competitions in Hakuba will also be memorable for Jurij Tepes and he sure gained some self confidence for the rest of the summer training.

First points for Nurmsalu

The competition was a little disappointing for Pavel Karelin (13th), Andreas Wank (14th) and Johan Remen Evensen (16th). Strong again: Canadian Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes (19th), who seems to establish himself in the circuit and once again scored many points.

Because Japan used the national quota on Firday, only 35 jumpers took part today - only five athletes could not qualify for the final. So Estonian Kaarel Nurmsalu could score points for the first time. At the end the newly crowned national champion finished 29th. The bright spot for Finland in the competitions in Hakuba was Juha-Matti Ruuskanen who came in around the 20th place twice and is now travelling to Kazakhstan as the best Finn in the overall ranking. But the 55th place is not what the Finns expected.

With three more competitions left in the FIS GP, Thomas Morgenstern will be almost impossible to beat in the battle for the overall victory. The Austrian has scored 580 points, Tom Hilde now has 403 points. Kamil Stoch, who was not competing in Japan, is third with 389 points, Takeuchi is fourth (281 points).

FISskijumping.com
27.08.2011 12:33

  Tweet