SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. It is one of these unbelievable stories that only the sport writes. About 28 years after the only World Cup victory of his father Holger, Richard Freitag celebrated his first victory in the World Cup - and that on the same location, in Harrachov in the Czech Republic. Holger won there on January 8th, 2983.

Like a great athlete, Freitag was not impressed by the other jumps and kept his nerves when he was the last to jump in the final round. The 20-year-old jumped on 137.5 m and won with a total of 292.4 points clearly ahead of Thomas Morgenstern from Austria (283.9 points). "I can hardly describe how I felt before the final jump. It's amazing", Freitag said and was looking to find words. "My father will be just as happy as I am. We'll see what's going on at home. They will be happy for sure. My father won only one competition, I hope that I can do better than that."

Best result for Germany since ten years

Severin Freund, who finished third with 277.8 points, completed the best result of the German jumpers under head coach Werner Schuster and the best result for the German team since ten years. "The Austrians are strong, but here it was time for others. I'm very happy for Ritchie that it went that well for him", said Freund. "Hopefully it will continue like that for both of us." The last time there were two Germans on the podium was on March 13th, 2002 in Falun. Matti Hautamaeki won back then, Martin Schmitt and Sven Hannawald finished second and third.

The Germans were able to close the gap to the Austrians a little bit more, Michael Neumayer achieved his best result of the season as ninth. But also the Austrians showed a great team performances. Andreas Kofler made his best jumps in Harrachov and finished fifth, David Zauner was seventh, followed by Gregor Schlierenzauer. Four Austrians among the best eight. "I could show some further development this weekend. Finally I had that feeling again during the jump that I was looking for and that made me strong in the past. The whole package is not perfect yet for me, but I can work on that until the 4-Hills-Tournament", said Morgenstern who thanked the organizers for "twelve jumps under good conditions" this weekend.

Bardal strong - Kranjec among the best again

The fourth place went to the Norwegians, Anders Bardal, who is jumping strong and consistent is by far the best of the team of head coach Alexander Stoeckl right now. Robert Kranjec established himself in the world class with his sixth place. The shape of Simon Ammann is getting better, right on time for the home events in Engelberg. He was tenth today.

Damjan from 28 to 11 - Hlava consistent

Jernej Damjan had an extraordinary competition. The Slovene, already the best of his team in the team competition, was only 28th after the first round, but with a great jump in the final he moved up to 11th overall. So the Slovenes will be satisfied with their result on Sunday.

The Polish team is not doing that well at the moment. Kamil Stoch was their best as 13th. Besides him only Piotr Zyla (25th) could qualify for the final round. Lukas Hlava (13th) was once again the best of the Czech team. He compensated the absence of Roman Koudelka, who fell here in training but will be able to compete again in Engelberg.

Kornilov and Koivuranta out in the qualification

After his great performances recently, Andrea Morassi could not qualify for the final round. Also Martin Schmitt could not score any World Cup points. Anton Kalinitschenko (26th) was the only Russian in the second round. Denis Kornilov could not even qualify for the competition. Only Janne Happonen could score points for Finland - he was 17th. Sebastian Colloredo represented Italy in the second round and finished 22nd. Nicolas Mayer scored two points for France as 29th.

Kofler will travel to Engelberg as the overall World Cup leader with 358 points. His teammate Schlierenzauer is second (302 points), followed by Freitag (294 points).

FISskijumping.com
11.12.2011 15:36

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