Under extremely changing conditions Simon Ammann celebrated his first victory of the season, his ninth overall. The Swiss won a "wind-competition" in Lillehammer with 277.1 points clearly ahead of Finland's Harri Olli (267.6 points) and the surprise of the day, Emmanuel Chedal (265). For the French this was the first podium finish of his career. Chedal already won the qualification earlier today.

"I felt all my ligaments after the landing. Of course I'm very happy", said Ammann. Chedal was also very excited. "A French on the podium again after 12 years. That's awesome. My shape is very good at the moment. After the podium finish in summer, now also one in winter - a great day." This was the first Top 3 result for the French teams since March 12th, 1997. Back then Nicolas Dessum was second in Kuopio.

Last year's winner Gregor Schlierenzauer finished fourth, young German Pascal Bodmer fifth. Andreas Kofler came in sixth, ahead of the two Poles Kamil Stoch and Adam Malysz, who could repeat their good performances from last summer also this winter and are about to rough up the world class.

Three Germans in the Top Ten

The Germans are also on cloud nine. Besides Bodmer, also Michael Uhrmann (9th) and Andreas Wank (10th) landed in the Top Ten. So they were the strongest team on Sunday. "You can be satisfied with the result, but there are still things to improve. Difficult conditions don't really matter to me", Bodmer stated.

The fans held their breath during Schlierenzauer's jump in the first round. He landed after unbelievable 150.5 m, but of course could not stand this jump and fell. Fortunately he didn't suffer any serious injuries and could take part in the final. "I'm happy that nothing happened. It was a top jump, but the inrun was too long. It might have been a sign if the coaches would have reduced the inrun voluntary", said Schlierenzauer.

Pointner doesn't want to compete under such conditions in the future

His coach Alexander Pointner was angry at the jury: "You have to ask yourself why such competitions take place. The conditions were so changing that top athletes jump only 100 m if they have bad conditions and Gregor flies to 150 m. I will not compete under such changing conditions in the future", the coach told. German head coach Werner Schuster agreed: "Sometimes I feel like in a circus. That was dangerous."

High level performances were shown in the first round, in spite some breaks due to the wind. Before Schlierenzauer's jump, Simon Ammann had already set a new hill record of 146 m, 3 meters longer than Schlierenzauer's old record. In the final the jury acted with more caution and reduced the inrun speed. But still the competition was unpredictable and not only a few jumpers had problems. Among them also Martin Schmitt (27th) or Jakub Janda.

Kuettel and Ahonen did not start - Kuettel with the joy of fatherhood

World Champion Andreas Kuettel from Switzerland did not take part in Sunday's competition and went back hom instead. Not to train there, but because his wife is expecting their first child. "I hope you did it", Ammann screamed at the camera, referring to his friend and teammate becoming a father. "Andreas' wife is in labor and we are all really excited", said Ammann. Janne Ahonen, who already announced that he will not take part in all World Cups, did also not compete today. Once again, Georg Spaeth and Martin Koch could not qualify for the competition.

Andrea Morassi, who was on a good 18th place after the first round, could score the first World Cup points for Italy as 25th. Surprisingly the usually very consistent Wolfgang Loitzl was not much better and finished 22nd.

Some favorites "blown away" by the wind

Only one day after his second place, Thoms Morgenstern came in only 21st. He barely made the final of the best 30. In general it was windy at the Olympic hill from 1994 and so the hopes of some great athletes were litteraly blown away by the wind. So Bjoern Einar Romoeren lost his lead in the overall World Cup because he was only 35th and could score no points. His teammate Anders Jacobsen also missed the final round, just like Denis Kornilov, Michael Neumayer, Piotr Zyla and Lukasz Rutkowski.

New leader in the overall World Cup ranking is Schlierenzauer (162 points), followed by his long-time rival Simon Ammann (144 points) and 18-year-old Pascal Bodmer (143 points).

fisskijumping.com
06.12.2009 16:28

Italy and Russia took the victory in Düsseldorf

In the today's team sprint in free technique in Düsseldorf (GER) the team Italy 1 with Arianna Follis and Magda Genuin claimed victory in the women's race while in the Russian Team, Nikolay Morilov and Alexei Petukhov won the men team competition.

The Italian sprinter Follis and Genuin were the fastest on the 2 x 3 x 828m course ahead of the Swedish team (Ida Ingemarsdotter and Hanna Falk). On the third place finished the team Norway 1 with Celine Brun-Lie and Maken Caspersen Falla.

On the flat course in Düsseldorf, the team Russia with the yesterday's winner Alexei Petukhov and Nikolay Morilov claimed clearly victory ahead of team Norway with Eirik Brandsdal and Anders Gloeersen. The last spot on the podium took the team Sweden II (Robin Bryntesson and Bjoern Lind).

In the nations cup the leading team is Norway (2198pts) ahead of Russia (1446pts) and Sweden (1222pts).

fiscrosscountry.com
Sunday 6 December 2009