. world ski news : Austria wins FIS Team Tour - 06 February 2011 - 17:22
SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. The Austrian ski jumpers won the competition and 100 000 Euro. There was never any doubt that Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Martin Koch will win the FIS Team Tour. With 4564.2 points the Austrians are more than 250 points ahead of Norway (4312.8 points). Germany finished third with 4302.6 points.
After the first round it was also already clear that Austria would also win Sunday's competition and that also Norway with the strong ski flyers could not beat them. So the Austrians won with 1579.1 points ahead of Norway (1528.6 points) and Germany (1479.2 points. The team of head coach Alexander Pointner this was already the second victory at the FIS Team Tour that was held for the third time.
Freund with longest jump in Oberstdorf
In front of their home crowd Germany finished third thanks to the great jumps of Michael Uhrmann (209 m) and Severin Freund who jumped 218 m. This was the longest jump of the days here in Oberstdorf. And: He also made a telemark and got 20.0 of one of the judges. A dream. "It was really cool. Now we will talk about how we'll go on from here", Freund said after his awesome jump. Head coach Werner Schuster praised his athlete. "That was a super jump, Severin".
For a long time it didn't seems as if Germany would be able to achieve that podium result because Finland's Matti Hautamaeki and Janne Happonen showed great jumps. But Finland can travel more relaxed to Norway now. They made a step forward in their search for a good team. Kalle Keituri and Olli Muotka showed that their form is on the up.
Ito getting stronger, Norwegians and Finns also
Under fair conditions the fans saw many jumps over 200 meters. It's obvious that many jumpers are getting in their best shape for the World Championships in Oslo. Besides the Austrians this was proven by the Finns Matti Hautamaeki and Janne Happonen, Daiki Ito from Japan and Norwegians Anders Jacobsen and Johan Remen Evensen, a very strong ski flyer. Roman Koudelka will be the one to count on for the Czech team. The 21-year-old is very consistent and also jumped over the 200 m mark on Sunday.
Russians not in form - lots of work for Slovenia
The fourth-placed Finns were followed by Japan and Poland. Adam Malysz was once again the best of his team. Besides Ito also Noriaki Kasai showed good jumps for Japan. Stefan Hula and Piotr Zyla could not meet the expectations, Kamil Stoch jumped well. Slovenia finished seventh, ahead of the Czech Republic and Russia.
The Russians are completely out of shape, only Pavel Karelin is competitive at the moment. There's also a lot of work to do for the Slovenian team. Peter Prevc is not yet doing very well on ski flying hills. Maybe it would make more sense for him to train on smaller hills instead of travelling to the world's largest hill in Vikersund next week. Also Robert Kranjec did not do very well in Oberstdorf.
In the German team it was already decided that Michael Uhrmann and Martin Schmitt will not take the trip to Vikersund.
FISskijumping.com
06.02.2011 15:46