. world ski news : Morgenstern dominates in Lillehammer - 05 December 2010 - 19:37
SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Thomas Morgenstern also won the second competition in Lillehammer and captured the third victory for Austria in the fourth individual competition of the season. With 135 m the 24-year-old was already in the lead after the first round. In final he jumped on 137 m and captured the victory with a total of 283.0 points.
He celebrated the 16th victory of his career about ten points ahead of Finland's Ville Larinto (273.6 points). "It's a lot of fun at the moment. It's great when you achieve such good results. That's a fantastic feeling", the winner told.
"Today I'm very satisfied, both jumps were good. My goal for Harrachov is to be in the Top 10. When I can show two good jumps I can also be on the podium again there", Larinto said.
Simon Ammann from Switzerland (272.1 points) was on the podium again, he finished third for the third time in four competitions. Andreas Kofler was fourth, just like on Saturday. Matti Hautamaeki proved his great form again as sixth.
Norwegians with strong team
The Norwegians didn't make it to the top on Sunday, but showed a great team performance. Johan Remen Evensen finished fifth, Anders Bardal seventh and Anders Jacobsen eighth. Shooting star Rune Velta, who won the qualification, achieved the best result of his career as tenth. Tom Hilde completed the outstanding result for Norway as 13th.
For Poland it was once again only Adam Malysz who could achieve a top result. Although, as ninth, the Polish icon also still has some room for improvement. Kamil Stoch was 16th and seems to get in shape, but he's not yet good enoughfor top results.
Better day for German team
For Germany Severin Freund achieved one of his best results as 13th, Michael Neumayer was 15th and so it was a better day for head coach Werner Schuster. "I have to be satisfied with that. Some jumps were okay", said Martin Schmitt who scored his first World Cup points of the winter as 23rd. "We showed that we have potential", said Schuster who is happy about the positive development of his team.
Loitzl good - Schlierenzauer stagnating
As 11th Wolfgang Loiztl was close to his first Top 10 result of the winter. He is getting in form. The improvement was necessary for the 30-year-old because there's competition within his own team: Manuel Fettner showed very good performances, he was 12th today, and fights for his place on the team. With two Gold medals at stake in Oslo the pressure is very high in Austria.
Gregor Schlierenzauer is not doing that well. The 20th place on Sunday was his worst result of the winter. Behind Martin Koch (18th) he was only fifth-best of the Austrian team.
The Czech team already had better competitions, but at least three of their jumpers scored points. Jakub Janda as 17th, Lukas Hlava as 28th and Jan Matura as 30th.
Koivuranta not there yet
Anssi Koivuranta has not found his way in ski jumping yet. Also after the two competitions in Norway the former nordic combined skier couldn't score points yet this season. With Ville Larinto and Matti Hautamaeki Finland only has two strong jumpers at the moment.
The Slovenian is facing tough times already after the first World Cup competitions: The athletes of head coach Matjaz Zupan could not score points in Lillehammer. All three jumpers could not reach the final round. Jurij Tepes and Peter Prevc could not meet the expectations, just like Robert Kranjec, who trained in Lillehammer for a couple of days this week. Without any success.
Morgenstern will wear the Yellow Bib also in Harrachov. With 325 points he leads ahead of Larinto (252 points) and Kofler (250 points).
FISskijumping.com
05.12.2010 16:08