SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. With a demonstration of this strength Andreas Kofler won the first World Cup competition on the normal hill since four years (December 2007 in Villach). In the first round the "Man of the hour" set a new hill record on the Olympic hill of 1994 in Lillehammer with 105 m and improved the old record, held by local hero Espen Bredesen. After the first round Kofler had a lead of 17.6 points - it was already clear that he would capture his seventh victory in the World Cup.

Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski placed 8th, photo: FIS

The winner of the first competition in Kuusamo proved his great shape this season and outshined his teammates Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer. Kofler won with a total of 279.3 points.

Freitag sensational second

The second place on the Lysgaardsbakken went to Germany's Richard Freitag (273.3 points), who achieved his first ever podium result in the World Cup. As sixth in Kuusamo he achieved his first Top 10 result about a week ago. Now he stood on the podium in his 17th World Cup competition. "I'm very proud of him", head coach Werner Schuster said after the competition, that took place under slightly changing tailwind conditions. "I'm extremely happy. Being second before the final jump is a different feeling. Tomorrow we jump on the large hill and that's even more fun", said Freitag.

Kamil Stoch from Poland came in third but with 249.6 points he was clearly behind the two best. Roman Koudelka, who is in a great shape right now, finished fourth. But that's not the only top result for the Czech team. Lukas Hlava was fifth.

Ammann in the Top 10

Best Finn was Anssi Koivuranta as seventh, Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski achieved the best result of his career as eighth. In his firs World Cup appearance this winter, Simon Amman was not on top again already, but he was better than, for example, Thomas Morgenstern (12th). So the ninth place was a good result for the Swiss. Jernej Damjan was the best Slovene as tenth.

Schmitt 50th - also Happonen not in the final

How difficult it is to rank the own performance could be seen after Gregor Schlierenzauer's jump. After his first round he celebrated, he thought the jump was great, but it was not far enough. The Austrian was only 21st after the first round. But he could move up to sixth in the final and achieved a good result in the end.

Disappointing result for Norway

Also Severin Freund was wrong. After the competition the German said: "I thought that the jump was better, but then you land after 77 m. You almost have to smile about that", Freund described his jump in the final. He finished 29th.

It was a disappointing competition for the Norwegian team. Their best was Anders Bardal as 15th, Vegard Sklett, the sinner of the qualification, was 23rd. Tom Hilde finished 30th. The team of head coach Alexander Stoeckl sure wanted more in front of their home crowd.

Martin Schmitt had a bad comeback in the World Cup. After good jumps in training he was only 50th. Also Bjoern Einar Romoeren, who was second in the qualification, missed the final, just like Finland's Janne Happonen. Sebastian Colloredo showed convincing performances in training, but could also not score World Cup points. But Colloredo had to jump under difficult conditions.

Kofler leads in the overall ranking now with the maximum of 200 points, ahead of Schlierenzauer with 120 points.

FISskijumping.com
03.12.2011 18:02