SKI JUMPING. Gregor Schlierenzauer's dream came true: A day before his 22nd birthday the Austrian celebrated the long-awaited victory at the 4-Hills-Tournament. He had to wait a while until the triumph was secure, but not because of his performance, but because of the weather. The jury gave up the fight against the snowfall at 7:10 pm CET on Friday evening and Schlierenzauer won the overall title after only one round at the final.

The final competition in Bischofshofen was won by his teammate Thomas Morgenstern, for whom this was the first victory this season. The athlete from Carinthia jumped on 135 m and reached a total of 138.7 points. It was the 22nd World Cup victory for Morgenstern.

Anders Bardal from Norway finished second. The 29-year-old jumped on the same distance as Morgenstern, but under better conditions and got 136.5 points. This was the fifth podium result for the Norwegian this season and he prevented the fourth Austrian double victory at this 60th 4-Hills-Tournament. But the Austrians won all four competition at the 4-Hills and only two athletes from other countries, Anders Bardal and Richard Freitag, were could win in the World Cup this season so far.

Schlierenzauer captured his first overall victory with a third place today and a jump on 131 m (128.4 points). He is the fourth Austrian in a row to win the 4-Hills.

Kofler risked everything and lost

Andreas Kofler tried everything to catch up to Schlierenzauer in the overall ranking, but he wanted too much. He had problems in the air in his first jump and was only 27th. The dream of the overall victory was over for the 27-year-old, who won the 4-Hills in 2010. Kofler showed in the final round, that was cancelled after ten jumpers, what he's capable of and showed an amazing jump on 140 m. "I was able to have a good 4-Hills, in the first round I took too much risk. If I wouldn't have done that everyone would have asked why I didn't. I didn't work" Kofler said.

The weather was causing lots of problems at the final of the 60th 4-Hills-Tournament. There was very heavy snowfall on both days and the wet snow stuck in the inrun track. The organizers tried everything they could to get the snow our of the track. Already the qualification earlier on Friday was cancelled because the fresh snow was causing problems for the jumpers in the inrun. The competition was also influenced by the neverending snowfall. Finally the jury decided to cancel the final and declare Schlierenzauer the winner.

Kranjec and Ito among the best again

Slovene Robert Kranjec finished fourth and so the 4-Hills had a happy ending for him. Also Daiki Ito from Japan, who had bad luck with the conditions in Innsbruck and lost a possible podium finish there, showed his skills as fifth. Roman Koudelka is also definitely part of the world class and he proved that again in Bischofshofen as sixth. Michael Hayboeck was happy about his seventh place, just like Russian Dimitri Vassiliev as eighth. Kamil Stoch from Poland and Germany's Richard Freitag compeleted the Top 10 this evening.

Severin Freund was only 30th and explained how the 4-Hills went for him: "The first half was great, then I was not able to show the performance I wanted. That's bad, but you can learn from that. There will be a fre more 4-Hills-Tournaments for me in the future", he said and already looked ahead.

4-Hills: Schlieri ahead of Morgi

Schlierenzauer defended his lead in the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament. The second place went to Thomas Morgenstern. Kofler defended his third place closely ahead of Norwegian Anders Bardal, who had his best 4-Hills-Tournament. So three Austrians are on the podium of the 60th edition of the 4-Hills-Tournament.

Kasai competed in the World Cup 400 times

For Noriaki Kasai it wasn't a good day. In his 400th World Cup competition the Japanese veteran finished only 56th. The 39-year-old  was relaxed, but he might have to worry for how long he will still be among the six best Japanese. "The younger athletes can still improve, it's more difficult for me", Kasai told FISskijumping.com in Innsbruck.

Besides Bardal, who is consistently strong, the young Norwegians showed their potential. Bjoern Einar Romoeren and Johan Remen Evensen had bad jumps in the final rounds of all competitions. Atle Pedersen Roensen and Kenneth Gangnes landed on the eleventh place.

FISskijumping.com
06.01.2012 19:44