SKI JUMPING. A veteran won the qualification for the premiere on the HS 94-hill in Hinzenbach. With his jump on 89 m, Wolfgang Loitzl showed that he still has to be reckoned with. The 31-year-old Austrian from Styria captured the victory with 123.6 points, followed by his five years younger teammate Manuel Fettner (118.5 points).

 triple victory for Austria was prevented by Severin Freund, who seems to have recovered well from his injury. The German was third with 117.1 points, 18-year-old Austrian Stefan Kraft finished fourth (115.4 points).

Daiki Ito from Japan and the best Czech Roman Koudelka came in on a shared fifth place. Michael Hayboeck, for whome the competition on the brand new hill in Upper Austria is a real home event, achieved a very good result as seventh.

Kalinitschenko an old new discovery

Also the Norwegians showed improvement. Rune Velta (8th), Bjoern Einar Romoeren (10th) and Anders Bardal (11th) were among the best. Surprisingly the 12th place went to Russian Anton Kalinitschenko, who is already 29 years old, but seems to get in a good shape now. Kalinitschenko achieved a surprising success in summer 2000 when he was a member of the Russian team that could win in Hinterzarten.

Freund already showed a convincing performance in training. He won the first round and was third in the second round. It was the other way around for Gregor Schlierenzauer: After he was third in the first round, he was the best in the second. Daiki Ito, last summer's overall winner, was second in both training rounds and showed that he seems to be on the right track towards the winter.

Morgenstern looking for his shape - Hilde as well

Thomas Morgenstern did not show his best jumps in training. A 14th and an 18th place are not good enough for the Austrian, who is used to nothing but success. But his main rival in the fight for the overall victory of the FIS GP, Norwegian Tom Hilde, jumped even worse on the new hill. Hilde was only 27th and 22nd in training. Morgenstern (83.5 m) and Hilde (80.5 m) could also not meet the expectations in the qualification.

Pre-qualified Gregor Schlierenzauer showed by far the longest jump of the whole qualification with 91 m. The rounds on the modern hill were held under great summer weather and without any delays on the modern hill, not far from the Danube river more or less in the lowlands. But ski jumping has a long tradition in Upper Austria: The great Andreas Goldberger and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger are also Upper Austrians.

Finns still with problems

The problems of the Finnish team also showed in this qualification. Olli Muotka, Jarkko Maeaettae and Kimmo Yliriesto failed to make the cut for the competition. The newly crowned Finnish champion Anssi Koivuranta will take part in the competition on Saturday (1:30 pm CET).

FISskijumping.com
30.09.2011 18:07

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