SKI JUMPING. Gregor Schlierenzauer won his 40th World Cup competition on the Trampolino dal Ben in Predazzo and got one step closer to the record of Finland's Matti Nykaenen, who won 46 times.

Schlierenzauer was already the best athlete on Friday and proved that again on Saturday. The competition break was obviously good for him. He captured the victory in a dominating manner. The 22-year-old showed the longest jump in both rounds and reached a total of 249.8 points. Severin Freund finished second and equalled his best result this season.

"Not going to Japan was the right decision. I really enjoyed this break after the exhausting 4-Hills-Tournament and the ski flying. I had to recharge the batteries. The competition was sensational, I had two very good jumps", said Schlierenzauer.

Freund happy about a "nice day"

"After the bad results in Sapporo this was a nice day. If you have a momentum everything just works. When you don't achieve good results it's not that easy anymore. You just have to remain focused and concentrated", the 23-year-old said after his third podium finish this season. It was an extremely good competition for the German team. They not only had Freund on the podium, with Richard Freitag (9th) and Andreas Wank (10th) two more jumpers reached the Top 10.

Thomas Morgenstern was only 14th after the first round, showed a great jump in the final on 130 m and moved up to third overall. It was his 70th podium result. Respect!

"It was not the first time that my second jump was better than the first one. I can be pretty satisfied with my jumps, even if they are not on the highest level like last season. Now i'm looking forward to the next competitions and I will continue fighting, especially for the right feeling in the inrun", Morgenstern told.

Season-best for Ammann

Anders Bardal was the best Norwegian as fourth. He is incredibly consistent and good this season. Finally also Simon Ammann had a reason to celebrate again. The Swiss landed on a good fifth place and achieved his best World Cup result this season. Kamil Stoch was the best of the Polish team as seventh, Czech Roman Koudelka finished eighth. Stoch had a bit bad luck with the conditions and will sure be one of the top contestants for the victory on Sunday.

Ito 11th, Takeuchi loses chance for top result

Daiki Ito, who won both competitions in Sapporo, was eleventh this time and with that he was a little better than his teammate Taku Takeuchi, who was third after the first round and finished 14th.

Some well-known athletes failed to qualify for the final round in the first competition in Val di Fiemme. Denis Kornilov from Russia, Norwegian Kenneth Gangnes, Noriaki Kasai (JPN) and especially Robert Kranjec definitely wanted to score at least some points.

Also Matti Hautamaeki, who won Gold in the team competition at the World Championships here nine years ago, missed the final. Only one of four Finns reached the second round - Anssi Koivuranta scored one point as 30th.

Andreas Kofler, who finished sixth, still leads the overall World Cup ranking with 1034 points, but Schlierenzauer (966 points) is getting closer. Bardal is third.

FISskijumping.com
04.02.2012 18:11