SKI JUMPING. After all competitions on Friday and Saturday had been cancelled due to strong wind and snow, the numerous spectators saw an exciting first competition at the skiflying hill Kulm today. Robert Kranjec from Slovenia was the beaming winner on the Austrian's home turf.

Kranjec won the first competition of the day, which consisted of one round only, with a jump on 206 meters and 212.5 points. Thomas Morgenstern came in second (206.8) and Anders Bardal from Norway was able to gain the third spot on the podium with 201.6 points.

Longest jump by Ito, Austrians not as dominant as usual

Daiki Ito from Japan showed off his good shape with the longest jump of the competition and landed at 212 meters. He did not make it onto the podium because of his weak landing but managed to earn a fourth place in the final result.

The Austrians didn't have a perfect start into the ski flying season in front of their home crowd. Local hero Wolfgang Loitzl landed very early at 132.5 meters and Andreas Kofler had to fight with a difficult trial jump which made it hard for him to achieve a top ten result in the following competition. Under difficult conditions, ski flying World Champion Gregor Schlierenzauer was not able to keep up with the best jumpers. Only Thomas Morgenstern made the headcoach Alexander Pointer smile with his second place in the overall.

Norway underlines reputation as ski flying nation

As planned, Simon Ammann returned to the World Cup circuit after his early departure from the 4-Hills-Tournament. The four-time Olympic champion will not be entirely satisfied with his jump of 187 meters, though, which meant rank 10 in the overall result.

The Norwegian team impressed with four jumpers among the Top Ten and made it very clear why Norway is called a ski flying nation. Three jumps over 200 meters by Rune Velta, Vegard Haukoe Sklett and team leader Anders Bardal were a clear signal to the dominant Austrians that another nation might be able to catch up in the ski flying competitions. Ski flying world record holder Johan Remen Evensen also managed to get back into the game and achieved his first top ten result this season. The other Norwegian ski flying hero of past times, Bjoern Einar Romoeren, was not able to show excellent jumps and will have to improve for the second competition of the day.

Rule changes for ski flying competitons

The International Ski Federation FIS has decided upon a rule change concerning the starting order at ski flying events. From now on, the athletes will not be starting in the current World Cup overall order but in a separate ski flying overall order. According to that, the best ski flyers of the last season started last today in Bad Mitterndorf.

FISskijumping.com
15.01.2012 12:27

Bardal wins at Kulm - Schlierenzauer disqualified

Only two hours after Robert Kranjec's win, the second competition of this "Super-Skiflying-Day" started at the Kulm skiflying hill in Bad Mitterndorf in front of an impressive amount of spectators. This time, the top spot on the podium went to Anders Bardal (364.9) after two jumps of 197.5 and 183.5 meters. Bardal was followed by Daiki Ito (363.3) from Japan and Kamil Stoch from poland (358.2).

While the first competition round was only stopped by a few minor wind breaks, the athletes didn't really have the chance to achieve top jumps in the second round because of a continuoulsy blowing tail wind. Immediately before his jump, Gregor Schlierenzauer faced dramatic moments because the zipper of his suit broke. After the suit was repaired with safety pins and duct tape, Schlierenzauer showed an enormous strenght of will and was able to land a long jump which could have meant the victory. But according to the official rules, the zipper of a suit has to be fully closed and so, Sepp Grazer from the FIS equipment control hat to disqualify Schlierenzauer.  

Bardal beats tail wind

As one of the few athletes who managed to show a good jump even though the conditions were very difficult, Anders Bardal was rewarded with the win. After the first round, Daiki Ito from Japan was in the lead with the round's longest jump of 209 meters but wasn't able to show another equally good jump in the second round. Nevertheless, he finished the competition on the second rank. In addition to Kamil Stoch on the third place, Robert Kranjec and Roman Koudelka also managed to show off their flying skills and were rewarded with good positions in the overall ranking.

Thomas Morgenstern was able to improve his result in the second round and climb seven positions up. Known skiflyer Martin Koch showed an impressive jump in the first round but had to concede defeat to the tailwind as so many other jumpers before him, too. His teammate Andreas Kofler defended his overall World Cup lead in spite of a weaker performance today.

Freitag with improved performance

The German team showed itself to be in a better shape than in the previous competition this morning. After a long period in the leader box for Richard Freitag in the first round, he was also one of the jumpers who couldn't fight the tail wind in the second round. Severin Freund was the best German on rank nine in the overall result.

FISskijumping.com
15.01.2012 16:34