SKI JUMPING. The competition in the Upper Austrian town of Hinzenbach was characterized by comebacks. For athletes like Severin Freund and Thomas Morgenstern the second to last event of this year's FIS Summer Grand Prix was the first competition this summer. But today's win went to 20-year-old Maciej Kot of Poland. Severin Freund captured the second place and had a great comeback after a long break due to an injury. Take Takeuchi of Japan came in third.

Bulgarian ski jumping star Vladimir Zografski placed 15th in Hinzenbach. Photo: Tadeusz Mieczynski / skijumping.pl

Photo: FIS

Photo: FIS

"The wind conditions were good for me because I don't like to have too much head wind and I also had two good jumps today. I took a competition break and trained hard in Poland instead. I feel strong now and I'm in a good shape, so I think this was the right decision", said Maciej Kot, who showed jumps of 87.5 m and 88.5 m, could defend his lead after the first round and achieved a well deserved win with 230.1 points.

The winner of yesterday's qualification, Severin Freund, was also very satisfied with his second place: "It's amazing to be back now and jump that good. I'm very happy with how things worked out for me this summer. I started jumping in July and I think that waiting some time until I start competing again was the right decision." Freund was forced to take a break after surgery due to a herniated disc and the competition in Hinzenbach was his first after the injury. With 87.5 m he was fourth after the first round, with 89 m in the final he moved up to the podium. With 227.3 points he was only 0.1 points ahead of third-placed Japanese Taku Takeuchi.

"The conditions were difficult today, but I was able to show two stable and good jumps. I hope I can remain in such a good shape and keep on jumping on such a high level also in winter", said Takeuchi, who won the last Grand Prix competition in Almaty and was again showing a very good performance today. 88 m and 88.5 m and a total of 227.2 points earned him the third place.

Record jump of Anders Fannemel

The many fans in Hinzenbach saw the longest jump of the day in the first round. With 95.5 m Norwegian Anders Fannemel set a new hill record and made the best out of good head wind conditions. At the end he closely missed the podium and finished fourth, followed by Gregor Schlierenzauer, Germany's Danny Queck, who is in a very good shape right now, and Thomas Morgenstern. Also young Russian Alexey Romashov had some luck with the wind conditions in the first round and was third. But he was not able to defend this position in the final and finished 12th.

All eleven Austrians could qualify for their home competition, five of them reached the final round today. Andreas Kofler was disqualified because his suit did not meet the requirements.

Wank further extends his lead

In absence of his main opponents in the overall ranking, Jurij Tepes and Simon Ammann, Germany's Andreas Wank could not score a maximum of points as eleventh, but still he could extend his overall lead. With 433 points he travels to Klingenthal with a lead of 87 points and has a very good chance to capture the overall title when the final event will be held three days from now.

FISskijumping.com
30.09.2012 14:47