. world ski news : Schlierenzauer celebrates long-awaited home victory - 03 January 2010 - 17:11
Gregor Schlierenzauer lifted his curse in Innsbruck and won the competition on the "Berg Isel". He celebrated the long-awaited home victory and could now win on all four hills of the Tournament. So Andreas Widhoelzl is not the only Tyrolean anymore who won a World Cup competition in Innsbruck.
Austrians reach historic marks
And one more thing regarding statistics: The Austrians won eight out of the last nine 4-Hills-Tournament competitions - impressive. After the victories of Andreas Kofler in Oberstdorf and Schlierenzauer in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Austrian team can still win all four event this season. The last time they could do that was 1974/75, Karl Schnabl (3) and Willi Puerstl (1).
Schlierenzauer laid the foundation for the victory in the first round when he showed the longest jump of 130 m. He followed up in the final and clearly won with 251.1 points ahead of his long-time rival Simon Ammann from Switzerland (237.8 points) and Finland's Janne Ahonen (237.4 points).
Three Austrians ahead in the overall ranking
Kofler remains the leader of the overall ranking, but the lead is melting away. He finished fourth (235.1) and before the last competition in Bischofshofen he is, with 777.2 points, about 15 points ahead of Schlierenzauer. Wolfgang Loitzl, who come in sixth today, is third and with 750.7 points. Ahonen is fourth (749.9), followed by Ammann (746.8).
Thomas Morgenstern is now out of the race for the overall title. He finished only 14th on Sunday and lost all his chances to win the 4-Hills-Tournament.
Bodmer and Malysz in the Top Ten
Norwegian Anders Jacobsen showed a strong performance and was fifth, German Pascal Bodmer proved one more time that he can compete with the best and was eighth. Right behind Adam Malysz from Poland. Veteran Noriaki Kasai, who already won three times in Innsbruck, was ninth. The surprise of the day was young Austrian Mario Innauer as tenth.
Bad team performance for Finland
Bitter for Germany: Michael Neumayer, Maximilian Mechler and Martin Schmitt were only 32rd (Neumayer and Mechler) and 34th and missed to qualify for the final. This fate was shared by Jakub Janda, Lukas Mueller and Jernej Damjan, who showed good performances recently. Also the negative streak of World Champion Andreas Kuettel continued in Innsbruck.
It was a very bad day for the Finnish team. Matti Hautamaeki, Ville Larinto and Kalle Keituri came in 45th, 47th and 49th.
FISskijumping.com
03.01.2010 16:04