OLYMPICS, SKI JUMPING. Noriaki Kasai won the qualification for the Olympic competition on the large hill with a great jump on 142.5 m (143.5 points). The 37-year-old Japanese benefited from head wind in the Whistler Olympic Park. His teammate Daiki Ito finished second (142.6 points) and completed the perfect result for the Japanese team.

The Finnish team showed convincing performances and Matti Hautamaeki (3rd) and Harri Olli (9th) landed in the Top 10. Janne Happonen also showed a good jump and that brings the Finnish team back in the game for medal in the team event. Janne Ahonen, who is pre-qualified, could is still struggeling with his shape on this hill.

Very strong Norwegians

The decision of Norwegian head coach Mika Kojonkoski to nominate Anders Bardal proved to be right. The 27-year-old showed a very good jump and his seventh place is also an application for Monday's team competition. If Bardal can keep that form in the competition, it will be difficult for Bjoern Einar Romoeren to get a place on the team. Johan Remen Evensen was 6th, Tom Hilde as 8th and the pre-qualified Anders Jacobsen, who jumped on 142.5 m just like Kasai, completed the strong performance of the Norwegians. In this shape they could even beat the Austrians in the team competition.

Andreas Wank surprised as the best German, he finished on a shared third place with Czech Antonin Hajek and Matti Hautamaeki. Martin Schmitt could easily qualify, but he jumped better in training. "We tried to change some things, but training is training and a competition is something different", he told. Michael Neumayer and Michael Uhrmann, who was pre-qualified and jumped 134.5 m, will also compete on Saturday.

Austrians not at their best

By far the best of the pre-qualified athletes was Jacobsen. The whole Austrian team could not show convincing performances. Simon Ammann jumped 140 m and used his controversial binding. It seems as if this controversy concerining the binding affected the Austrian team more than in did the Swiss.

Polish team in a good position

The Polish team jumped well and their three athletes Stefan Hula, Krzysztof Mietus and Kamil Stoch finished 14th, 16th and 17th. These performances raise some hopes for a medal, especially when they have an ace in the hole with Adam Malysz, who jumped only 133.5 m and still has some room for improvement.

Finally there is also positive news for the Russians. All four athletes qualified for the competition, Pavel Karelin and Denis Kornilov achieved that goal clearly. So things are getting better for the Russian team of Wolfgang Steiert and Bernie Schoedler.

A Canadian in the competition

It was also a good day for the hosts. With Stefan Read, one of the four athletes, could qualify for the competition. All three Ukrainian jumpers could not make the cut, that looked a lot better on the normal hill.

FISskijumping.com
19.02.2010 20:18