Shohei Tochimoto was the best in the qualification for the first competition in Sapporo on Saturday (9:00 am CET). The Japanese won with a jump on 133.5 m (139.3 points) ahead of Norwegian Andreas Stjernen (139.1 points) and the two Poles Marcin Bachleda (137.4 points) and Lukasz Rutkowski (126.9 points). Mario Innauer was fifth and best Austrian, follwed by the third Pole Stefan Hula. A great result for the Polish team, that travelled to Japan without Adam Malysz and Kamil Stoch.

Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski, 4-Hills_Tournament, Garmish-Partenkirchen, 31.12.2009 г., photo credit: Anna Szczepankiewicz / skijumping.pl

Former nordic combined skier David Zauner was seventh at his debut in the World Cup. Germany's Severin Freund made it in the Top 10 as ninth.

Hajek shows longest jump - Difficult conditions

With 137.5 m, Antonin Hajek showed the longest jump of the day. The pre-qualified Czech could take his great shape from the skiflying in Bad Mitterndorf over to Japan. "He is in a great shape. Since the skiflying at the Kulm he knows that he can win. Here he already showed in the first training what he is capable of. He had bad luck that his ski broke but we got some help of the Polish and the Japanese team. Now everything's okay, but the search for the balance point continues", said Czech head-coach David Jiroutek.

Noriaki Kasai and Thomas Morgenstern, who loves competing in the Far East, jumped 134 m. Especially Morgenstern had good head wind during his jump. "I'm satisfied with the jump. I tried some things in the training and also new suits were checked by Sepp Gratzer. I'm looking forward to the competitions, Sapporo is one of my favorite places in the World Cup", said Morgenstern, for whom Kasai is the favorite to win. "He knows this hill like the back of his hand".

Simon Ammann had some problems and will have to do better in the competitions if he wants to get a good lead over Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer, who is not in Japan, in the fight for the yellow bib. Ammann jumped only 122.5 m. But the Swiss was unlucky with the conditions, he had to jump with strong tailwind. "The winds were changing very fast", told Slovene Miran Tepes, who controls the lights.

Koch with problems

But he was not the only pre-qualified athlete who had some problems. Martin Koch landed already after 100 m. With this distance it would have been difficult to qualify.

A total of 65 jumpers, an extraordinary number of athletes, took part on the hill where the World Championships 2007 were held. As a prove of the bad shape of the Finnish team Arttu Lappi and Sami Niemi missed to qualify. Of the Polish team Rafal Sliz and Maciej Kot will not be able to take part in the competition. Also both Chinese couldn't make the cut in their first appearance of the season.

All athletes from Norway, Germany and Austria could qualify for the competition.

FISskijumping.com
15.01.2010 09:41

RESULTS

Rank Bib Name Club Nat Date of birth Speed [km/h] Distance [m] Distance Points Judges Marks A B C D E Judges Points Gate Points
1. 55 TOCHIMOTO Shohei  Snow Brand Ski Team JPN 21 DEC 1989 89.4 133.5 84.3 18.0 18.5 18.5 18.5 18.0 55.0 18 139.3
2. 50 STJERNEN Andreas Sprova IL/ Tronderhopp NOR 30 JUL 1988 90.0 134.5 86.1 17.5 18.5 18.0 17.5 17.5 53.0 18 139.1
3. 51 BACHLEDA Marcin TS Wisla Zakopane POL 4 SEP 1982 89.2 133.0 83.4 17.5 18.0 18.5 18.5 17.0 54.0 18 137.4
...
40. 8 GLASDER Michael Norge Ski Club USA 27 MAR 1989 89.7 101.5 26.7 15.5 16.0 16.5 16.0 16.0 48.0 18 74.7
42. 19 ZOGRAFSKI Vladimir Samokov BUL 14 JUL 1993 88.9 100.0 24.0 15.5 15.5 16.0 16.0 15.5 47.0 18 71.0