SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Martin Koch is a phenomenon: The Carinthian is regularly in a league of its own in ski flying. After his first World Cup victory a couple of weeks ago - in ski flying of course - in Harrachov the 29-year-old also won the Ski Flying World Cup in Oberstdorf.

On the Heini-Klopfer-Hill in Oberstdorf Koch landed on 214.5 m in the first round, this was the longest jump of the day. In the final he posted 210.5 m and celebrated his second World Cup victory with 428.4 points. So Koch ended a streak of five individual World Cup competition with no Austrian victory.

Schlierenzauer: First podium this season

Norwegian Tom Hilde finished second with 406.6 points. He is in a great form the whole season and is for sure Norway's biggest hope at the World Championships in Oslo. The 23-year-old was on the podium already the fifth time.

For the first time this season Gregor Schlierenzauer was on the podium. The Austrian - known to be a strong ski flyer - moved up from seventh to third and is the sixth Austrian with a Top 3 result this season. It was already the 53rd podium result for the 21-year-old.

Freund fourth - Ito on the up

Best German was Severin Freund, who narrowly missed the podium as fourth. "I was not sure whether I would be a good ski flyer. I think I showed today that I can also be among the best in ski flying", said Freund. Michael Uhrmann was also in the Top 10 as eighth.

Daiki Ito from Japan is becoming a secret favorite for the World Championships. The winner of the Summer Grand Prix finished fifth ahead of Poland's Adam Malysz and Andreas Kofler from Austria. Matti Hautamaeki was the Finn as ninth. Simon Ammann from Switzerland came in tenth and overall World Cup leader Thomas Morgenstern was only 16th. But still Morgenstern (1529 points) has a clear lead over Ammann (1099 points).

In the FIS Team Tour Austria has the best chance to win the 100 000 Euro prize money. With 2985.1 points they clearly lead ahead of Poland (2840.6 points) and Germany with 2823.4 points.

Kranjec only 15th

It was a disappointing competition for Robert Kranjec, who is usually achieving very good results in ski flying. He was the best Slovene as 15th. The best of the Czech team, Roman Koudelka, was 13th.

Pascal Bodmer had to experience how dangerous ski flying can ba. At the of his jump his skis started to move and the fell shortly after the landing with about 130 km/h. Fortunately he didn't suffer any injuries. A couple of minutes later he was already smiling again.

Michael Neumayer very honest

With Michael Neumayer a second German fell in the outrun. "There I'm a coward. I once suffered a serious injury so it's not thing to fight through the radius", Neumayer told and referred to the ACL rupture he suffered in 2006.

At least Neumayer could still qualify for the final. Jernej Damjan from Slovenia and Norwegian Anders Bardal could not make the cut. Especially Jernej Damjan presented himself in a good shape and was fifth in the qualification.

Also the winner of the qualification, Finland's Janne Happonen, could not meet the expectations as 20th.

FISskijumping.com
05.02.2011 17:58