SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. What a start for the Germans. In the qualification for the first competition of the 59th 4-Hills-Tournament a whole armada of German jumpers was among the best.

Ville Larinto, qualification 4-hills tournament Oberstdorf, 28.12.2010, foto © fisskijumping.com

The victory in the first qualification of the Tournament 2010/11 went to Felix Schoft from Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a jump on 138 m and 139.0 points. Martin Schmitt and Pavel Karelin shared the second place with 138.0 points. Karelin already showed convincing performances in the last World Cups and is slowly becoming a secret favorite. Anders Jacobsen from Norway was third, followed by the three Germans Stephan Hocke, Richard Freitag and Michael Uhrmann. “I was a bit astonished”, said head coach Werner Schuster, still a little disbelieving.

Larinto and Hautamaeki strong

The best of the already pre-qualified jumpers was Finland’s Ville Larinto, who showed a jump on 137.5 m worth 146.2 points. He was followed by his teammate Matti Hautamaeki (143.6 points). The two Finns remained in the great shape they had before the Christmas break. Adam Malysz from Poland was third (139.9 points), he won the 4-Hills-Tournament ten years ago and is still one of the favorites today.

Qualification 4-hills tournament Oberstdorf, 28.12.2010, foto © fisskijumping.com

Compared to the first competitions of the season, the German jumpers presented themselves improved in front of their home crowd. “You recharge the batteries over Christmas, that was good for me. You jump better with a clear head. We knew that it would be difficult and now we are starting to earn the fruits of our labor”, said Schmitt but he also added that “it’s still a long way to go, that’s for sure.” At the end eleven German jumpers could qualify, only Marinus Kraus failed to make the cut.

Just like Sven Hannawald a couple of years ago, Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler and Simon Ammann skipped the qualification and will have to compete with today’s best in the K.O. round on Wednesday. So for example one of the duels will be Thomas Morgenstern vs. Adam Malysz.

Vassiliev not qualified, Zografski surprised as 15th

Apart from that there were no surprises: The jumpers from Korea, Ukraine and Kazakhstan could not qualify for the competition. The Swiss team travelled to Oberstdorf without Andreas Kuettel, who was only 17th in Continental Cup in Engelberg. Also Dimitri Vassiliev will only be a spectator tomorrow. The Russian made his comeback in the World Cup after his ACL rupture and missed to qualify by only 0.6 points.

Vladimir Zografski (BUL), foto © fisskijumping.com

Vladimir Zografski from Bulgaria surprised as 15th. The whole Slovenian team could qualify, their best was Robert Kranjec as 20th. The Czech team lost only Roman Koudelka, Jakub Janda was the best Czech as 29th.

FISskijumping.com
29.12.2010 06:03