SKI JUMPING. The final event of the FIS GP 2011 will be held in Klingenthal and almost the whole world class took the trip to Saxonia to compete with the world's best ski jumpers. Gregor Schlierenzauer, Matti Hautamaeki, Dimitri Vassiliev, Martin Schmitt, Michael Neumayer, Daiki Ito, these are athletes who didn't compete much this summer. But they will all jump in Klingenthal.

Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT), FIS GP 2011 Klingenthal qualification, 02.10.2011, photo © Tadeusz Mieczynski / skijumping.pl

On Sunday it was all about qualifying for the final competition of the FIS GP 2011. And the best jumper in the qualification was Roman Koudelka, who came to Germany with the boost of his third place in Hinzenbach. The Czech won with a jump on 136.5 m, that earned him 139.0 points. Lukas Hlava (133.0 points) was second and ensured a double victory for the Czech Republic. The athletes of head coach Jiroutek showed that they worked well in training.

The third place went to Daiki Ito (129.6 points), who was also on the podium in Hinzenbach. The Japanese is focusing on the winter and tested new equipment. The fact that he is in such a good shape right now will give him a lot of self-confidence. Also in the Top 10 of the qualification were Manuel Fettner from Austria (4th), Slovene Robert Hrgota (5th), Wolfgang Loitzl (6th) and Italian Andrea Morassi (7th, who already jumped well in Hinzenbach. Matti Hautamaeki achieved a good result for Finland as eighth, Severin Freund and Reruhi Shimizu from Japan completed the Top 10, Martin Schmitt followed as eleventh.

Stoch and Schlierenzauer in a league of their own

Of the pre-qualified athletes Kamil Stoch showed the longest jump of the day with 142.5 m. Only Gregor Schlierenzauer could keep up with that and jumped on 141 m on his favorite hill. The fact that the third-best of the pre-qualified jumpers, local hero Richard Freitag, landed after 131.5 m, shows how strong these two athletes were. Stoch and Schlierenzauer already showed convincing performances in training. It seems as if they are the ones to beat in the competition on Monday (3:30 pm CET live on FISskijumping.com).

Morgenstern stays in Austria

Thomas Morgenstern, overall winner of the FIS GP 2011, will not compete in Klingenthal. After he already won the overall title, his third after 2003 and 2007, he decided to not travel to Klingenthal. Morgenstern wants to stay at home and train for the national Championships next weekend.

Tom Hilde (NOR), FIS GP 2011 Klingenthal qualification, 02.10.2011, photo © Tadeusz Mieczynski / skijumping.pl

Georg Spaeth, who started in the national quota today, had a good comeback on the highest level and easily qualified as 28th. Also Janne Happonen from Finland had no problems to qualify after his long break due to an injury. Just like Russian veteran Dimitri Vassiliev. Surprisingly Japanese Shohei Tochimoto and the Germans Pascal Bodmer and Stephan Hocke failed to make the cut. The FIS GP 2011 is also already over for Emmanuel Chedal.

FISskijumping.com
02.10.2011 19:44