. world ski news : Wank and Romoeren strong - but Sklett wins qualification for normal hill competition in Lillehammer - 02 December 2011 - 21:44
SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP. Vegard Haukoe Sklett won the qualification for the normal hill competition in Lillehammer and raised the hopes of the Norwegians for a top result. The 25-year-old showed a great jump on 101 m and reached a total of 144.3 points.
Sklett won ahead of Andreas Wank, who can show top jumps in the qualifications almost traditionally. The German reached a total of 142.5 points, just like Norwegian Bjoern Einar Romoeren who finished on a shared second place with Wank.
Italian Sebastian Colloredo showed good jumps in the training and the qualification in his first appearance this winter. He came in fourth. Local hero Johan Martin Brandt surprisingly finished on the fifth place in his first participation in a World Cup.
Jure Sinkovec achieved a Top 10 result for Slovenia as eighth. French Vincent Descombes Sevoie surprised as 12th, best of the Polish team was Stefan Hula as 14th, Dmitri Vassiliev was the best Russian as 14th. Anssi Koivuranta from Finland landed right before the Russian veteran.
Schmitt and Ammann easily qualified
Martin Schmitt showed good jumps in training that raised hopes for a Top 20 result. The 33-year-old was then 25th in the qualification, enough to make the cut. He came in only four places behind Simon Ammann who jumped on 90.5 m in his first appearance this winter and was 21st.
Finland's Matti Hautamaeki could not qualify for the normal hill competition on Saturday (the large hill event will take place on Sunday). Also ski flying world record holder Johan Remen Evensen from Norway and Shohei Tochimoto and Junshiro Kobayashi from Japan failed to make the cut.
David Zauner from Austria, who made his comeback in the World Cup after a long break due to an injury, still needs some more time before he can achieve top results. Zauner could not qualify for the competition.
Good training jumps enough for Schlierenzauer
Germany's Richard Freitag (98 m) showed the longest jump of the pre-qualified athletes under good conditions. Roman Koudelka from the Czech Republic, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Andreas Kofler did not take part in the qualification after good training jumps.
FISskijumping.com
02.12.2011 19:29