SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. The Austrians are a super power. At first they dominated the team competition on Sunday at the Nordic Opening, and in the following individual competition they took all three spots on the podium.

Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer (L-R), Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern pose for photographers on the podium after the World Cup large hill ski jumping event at Ruka ski resort near Kuusamo November 27, 2011. (Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

Andreas Kofler, the man who could not train the way he wanted this summer due to his police training, surprised and repeated his victory from last year in Kuusamo. With 264.2 points he won ahead of his teammates Gregor Schlierenzauer (263.5 points) and Thomas Morgenstern (256.3 points). Three Austrians on the podium, they couldn't have wished for a better start of the season.

Kofler: Great level in the team

"The hill in Kuusamo is mentally challenging. I was really relaxed and focused today, despite the cancellations yesterday. I didn't know that I'm that strong already, it got better and better today and I'm very happy about the victory. We are all jumping on a great level and that makes us so strong in team competitions", Kofler said after his sixth World Cup victory.

"It was a perfect day for the Austrian team and a perfect start of the new season. This is my best result in Kuusamo so far", told Schlierenzauer. "This is a day I won't forget", said Morgenstern. "It's not normal that you win a team competition and then do a podium sweep in the individual competition."

The Polish hope Kamil Stoch finished fourth in this competition, that could be held under fair conditions. But with 239.1 points he was clearly behind the Top 3. This shows how good the Autrians were today. But still: Stoch is ready and he will be able to cause concern among them sooner or later.

Koudelka encourages the Czech

Five years after Jakub Janda could win the overall World Cup the Czech team has a man for top results again. Roman Koudelka is in a great shape. He not only showed that in the team competition, but was also among the best in the individual event: A fifth place is a great start for the 22-year-old.

As sixth, Severin Freund proved that he is part of the world class. His teammate Richard Freitag achieved the best result of his career so far as ninth. So the two German hopes lived up to the expectations on Sunday. Also the fourth place in the team competition was a satisfying result. Five Germans could qualify for the final round.

Kornilov surprises as seventh

Denis Kornilov from Russia achieved a top result today. The 25-year-old, who already showed an outstanding performance in the team competition, was seventh. Best Norwegian was Tom Hilde as eighth, Anders Bardal landed on a good eleventh place. So after the disappointing result in the team event, this was a good performance of the Norwegian team around the new head coach Alexander Stoeckl. Evensen finished 15th.

The Finns can be happy about the performance of Janne Happonen, who came in tenth. Anssi Koivuranta also had a good competition as 13th. The start of the season did not go that well for the slovenian team. Peter Prevc was their best as 16th. The best Japanese was Shohei Tochimoto as 12th.

Only two Poles in the final

For the Polish team it seems as if they might be experiencing again what already happened last year. The team of head coach Lukasz Kruczek was very strong in summer, but they can't show that in winter. Besides Stoch, who is in the world class, only Piotr Zyla (19th) reached the final round of the best 30.

Daiki Ito could not qualify for the competition due to a fall. Also Maciej Kot and Krzysztof Mietus failed to make the cut. Just like the two Norwegians Kim Rene Elverum Sorsell and Ole Marius Ingvaldsen.

Like already last season, Kofler will now travel to Lillehammer as the overall World Cup leader. There the next two competitions will take place next weekend.

FISskijumping.com
27.11.2011 15:36

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