SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Severin Freund celebrated his first victory in a World Cup and achieved the first victory for the German team since almost four years (January 28th, 2007). Back then Michael Uhrmann won in Oberstdorf. Freund couldn't really believe what he just did at the Okurayama-hill in Sapporo. "It's unbelievable. You always try it, but I didn't think that I would be able to win here", he said afterwards and added that "you also need a little bit of luck, and I had that today."

He was fifth after the first round, but with his final jump on 129 m and a total of 249.6 points he was better than the world class. World Cup leader Thomas Morgenstern finished second with 248.2 points. The third place went to Adam Malysz from Poland (240.5 points), who was in the lead after the first round but could only jump 118 m in the final round. "I wanted to win, but I'm also satisfied with being on the podium. I can handle the shorter skis better and better and I want to improve this result tomorrow," he told.

Seven nations in the Top Ten

Andreas Kofler was fourth, followed by the winner of the qualificaiton, Michael Uhrmann, for whom this was the best result of the season. In absence of the top jumpers of Mika Kojonkoski, Andreas Stjernen was the best Norwegian as eighth. Russian Denis Kornilov and Jan Matura from the Czech Republic completed the Top 10.

The Japanese team could not achieve the result they were hoping for in front of their home crowd. Best of the "Air Nippon" was Noriaki Kasai as eleventh.

Jernej Damjan from Slovenia made a good comeback in the World Cup after doing already well in the Continental Cup where he won on the very same hill he finished 13th today. With that he was the best of his team.

Best of a disappointing Finnish team was Anssi Koivuranta as 23rd. Harri Olli could score one point as 30th, but in this form he will not be able to really help the Finnish team. Also the Canadian team could score points in their first appearance in the World Cup this winter. Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes was 28th - a great result for the 19-year-old.

Morgenstern (1163 points) extended his lead in the overall ranking. Ammann (721 points) is second, more than 400 points behind. After his victory Freund is now eleventh in the World Cup.

FISskijumping.com
15.01.2011 11:02