SKI JUMPING. Andreas Kofler won an extremely exciting competition in Engelberg and the final test for the 4-Hills-Tournament. The Austrian already celebrated his fourth victory this season and extended his lead in the overall ranking.

Andreas Kofler of Austria takes off from the ramp during the qualification run of the individual large hill ski jumping World Cup in Engelberg, December 18, 2011. Kofler of Austria won the competition ahead of second placed Kamil Stoch of Poland and third placed Anders Bardal of Norway. Picture taken with 8 mm fisheye lens. (REUTERS/Michael Buholzer)

In this close competition in the final round all the top athletes showed long jumps and that made landing difficult in the fresh snow. So the judges' marks made the difference. Kofler won with a total of 264.7 points, ahead of Poland's Kamil Stoch (260.8 points), who moved up from ninth to second. Anders Bardal, the winner of yesterday's competition, was third, only 0.3 points behind Stoch.

Andreas Kofler of Austria soars through the air during the qualification run of the individual large hill ski jumping World Cup in Engelberg, December 18, 2011. Kofler of Austria won the competition ahead of second placed Kamil Stoch of Poland and third placed Anders Bardal of Norway. Picture taken with 8 mm fisheye lens. (REUTERS/Michael Buholzer)

“It is always a great feeling to stand on top of the podium, especially in Engelberg. I'm really happy about my results and now I can spend some quiet and relaxing days at home. Wearing the yellow bib does not put me under pressure but keeps me motivated. At the moment I'm feeling good", said the winner. “My first jump today was good but the conditions were difficult. In the second round I managed to jump even better. Now we are going to have some training sessions in Austria before travelling home for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to spending some days with my family", told Stoch. And Bardal pointed out again how great this weekend was for him. "With a view to the 4-Hills-Tournament I can be pretty relaxed now. Now I'm looking forward to a few days at home and there I will recharge my batteries."

Andreas Kofler of Austria soars through the air during the first run of the individual large hill ski jumping World Cup in Engelberg, December 18, 2011. Kofler of Austria won the competition ahead of second placed Kamil Stoch of Poland and third placed Anders Bardal of Norway. (REUTERS/Michael Buholzer)

After the first round there was not even one point between Kofler, Richard Freitag and Thomas Morgenstern. The was only a margin of seven points between the best seven jumpers. The organizers of the 4-Hills-Tournament can be happy about this level of performance and expect great competitions.

Respect for Schlierenzauer

Huge respect also for the performance of Gregor Schlierenzauer. A day after his fall he already showed a great performance again. In spite of the pain he finished fourth and gained the necessary self-confidence for the 4-Hills-Tournament. The 21-year-old now has a couple of days over Christmas to recover and he will be fit again in Oberstdorf.
 
Morgenstern finished fifth, followed by Freitag and the second best Norwegian Vegard-Haukoe Sklett, who achieved his best result as seventh. Martin Koch came in eighth, ahead of local hero Simon Ammann, the only Swiss in the competition. Roman Koudelka from the Czech Republic achieved yet another Top 10 result. Robert Kranjec was the best Slovene as eleventh.

Finns with positive trend

The Finnish team clearly showed a positive trend at this final test for the 4-Hills-Tournament. Three Finns could score points, Anssi Koivuranta could have achieved an even better result as fifth after the first round and was 12th at the end. So jumpers from eight different nations were among the best twelve today.

Norwegians can relax over Christmas

The Norwegian team can spend relaxed Christmas holidays. With Tom Hilde (13th) they had another athlete among the best. Also the Germans can be relaxed, besides Freitag the have Maximilian Mechler (15th) and Severn Freund (16th) and both are showing consistent performances. Stephan Hocke was also doing well and finished 18th.

Engelberg was a setback for the Russians who could not score any World Cup points on Sunday, also the Japanese team is not in a good shape anymore. Daiki Ito was their best as 19th.

Kofler clear leader

Also the veterans Michael Neumayer, Bjoern Einar Romoeren and Dimitri Vassiliev could not score points in this competition. There's a new, fresh wind at the World Cup hills these days.

Kofler will start the 4-Hills-Tournament as the World Cup leader. He scored 508 points so far. Bardal is second with 390 points.

FISskijumping.com
18.12.2011 15:52