Andreas Kofler won the 58th 4-Hills-Tournament. The Austrian held his nerves also at the fourth event in Bischofshofen and kept his lead from Oberstdorf.

This is Andreas Kofler »

Kofler finished fifth in the final competition ahead of 25 000 enthusiastic fans, that was enough for the 25-year-old to win the Tour with 1027.2 points. Kofler is now the eighth Austrian who won the 4-Hills-Tournament. "Awesome. Unbelievable. A dream came true for me. I still haven't realized it, it's great. After the bad last year this is fantastic", said Kofler who was at a loss for words.

Kofler's teammate Thomas Morgenstern won the competition in Bischofshofen with 264.7 points, only 0.7 points ahead of Finland's Janne Ahonen. Simon Ammann (261.5 points), who was in the lead after the first round, came in third. So it was the first time since 1974/75 that all four competitions were won by Austrians, but for the first time by three different athletes. Nine out of the last ten competitions as part of the 4-Hills-Tournament went to Austria. "It's great to win here in Bischofshofen. A dream cam true. All the long, hard work to stand on top again: I have to thank so many people. That makes me strong, I like that", said Morgenstern, who won his last World Cup about two years ago (February 8th, 2008 in Liberec).

The career of Thomas Morgenstern »

Also Janne Ahonen was satisfied with the day's result and his second place in the 4-Hills-Tournament. "The first jump was very good, the second one was not bad. I'm very happy with my second place overall. I can still compete with the best with my technique, that's good to see. The year break didn't change that", said the 32-year-old.

Ammann with poker face

Ammann made a special plan for the final of the Tournament. Because he knew that before sunset the wind conditions at the hill are usually better, he tried to jump about 125 m in the qualification. Then he would jump earlier in the competition round - under better wind conditions. That plan worked and even experts were impressed by the tactial move of the smart Swiss.

Ammann showed a great first jump on 136 m and was the leader after the first round. His jump was seven meters longer than the jumps of Kofler and Gregor Schlierenzauer, and all of a sudden he was back in the game for the Tournament victory.

Ahonen second overall

But Kofler kept cool in the final, jumped 134 m and won the 4-Hills-Tournament ahead of Ahonen (1013.9 points) and last year's winner Wolfgang Loitzl (1011.6 points), who relegated Schlierenzauer to the fourth place by only 0.5 points. Simon Ammann finished fifth (1008.3 points) and was not happy with his final jump. "Of course I'm not really satisfied with my result. The first jump was very good, but you need more to win. That didn't work for me today. In the second round I could show my technique and made a little mistake."

More about Simon Ammann: »

The great Gregor Schlierenzauer was only sixth in Bischofshofen, close ahead of the best Russian Dimitri Vassiliev, Martin Koch, Pascal Bodmer and the best Norwegian Anders Jacobsen.

Evensen loses Top Ten result

For Jacobsen's teammate Johan Remen Evensen, tenth in the overall ranking before Bischofshofen, the Tournament ended with a disappointing result. The 24-year-old missed to qualify for the final round and lost a possible Top Ten result.

Matti Hautamaeki, who already won 18 World Cup competitions, was 39th, his worst result in a competition of the 4-Hills-Tournament. Also Pole Kamil Stoch, World Champion Andreas Kuettel from Switzerland or the Tournament winner from 006, Jakub Janda from the Czech Republic, could not qualify for the final in Bischofshofen and end the Tournament with a result that's not as good as they wished it would be. 

Bodmer in the Top Ten

With a great jump of 131 m Germany's Michael Uhrmann, third in the qualification, moved up from place 27th after the first round to 13th - a good end. "The second jump was very good, similar to yesterday. In the first round I wanted too much. I'm happy that at least the last jump was good", said Uhrmann, who was only third-best German behind a good Michael Neumayer.

This is Pascal Bodmer »

But at all four competitions 19-year-old Pascal Bodmer was the best German. So he landed on a very good seventh place in the overall ranking and was the ray of hope for the German team. And that in his second participation. Bodmer presented himself in a good shape on all four hills. Even if he did not do well in training, in the competitions he showed his best jumps. He can become a real leader in the team. "That's what I wished for. It went really well", said the athlete from Messstetten.

The Polish team, for which the Tournament was disappointing, is also still looking for such a leader. Adam Malysz was their best as ninth in the overall ranking. Jacobsen, as the best Norwegian, was tenth.

Ammann "in yellow" again

With his 43rd podium result, already his seventh this season, Simon Ammann captured the yellow leader's bib again. But with 669 points he is only 18 points ahead of Schlierenzauer. who wants to fight back in his domain, skiflying, this weekend at the "Kulm" in Bad Mitterndorf. Kofler is third, 148 points behind Ammann. Bodmer is eighth, Malysz ninth.

FISskijumping.com
06.01.2010 18:52