Nobody would have expected that before today's team
competition. The team of Norway showed an extremely
strong performance and could defeat the favorites
of Slovenia in the final of the FIS Team Tour. Besides
winning ahead of Austria and Slovenia today, the
athletes of coach Alex Stöckl could also win the
prize money of € 100 000, - for the overall
title of the FIS Team Tour.
Slovenia started the day of the ski flying team
event with a lead of more than 40 points, but they
already lost that after two of eight jumps. At the
end Anders Bardal, Tom Hilde, Andreas Stjernen and
Anders Jacobsen won the Team Tour with a lead of
11.2 points.
The Norwegian athletes were unbeatable on Sunday.
The team of Alexander Stoeckl reached 1577.1 points
and could overtake Slovenia in the FIS Team Tour
at the finish line. Anders Jacobsen, who is celebrating
his 28th birthday, made himself a great gift with
impressive jumps on 206 m and 212 m and was the
best of an individual ranking with his score of
407.6 points. Long jumps were shown also by Tom
Hilde (203.5 m and 204 m), Anders Bardal (209.5
m and 198.5 m) and Andreas Stjernen (211 m and 197.5
m).
"We are happy today, not only because of the
overall win of the Team Tour. We showed very good
jumps today and somehow it was easy. We don't know
yet, how we will split the € 100 000,-, we will
think about that later. In Val di Fiemme I want
to fight for the medals, especially because I haven't
won an individual medal at World Championships yet",
said Bardal.
The Austrian team could not start the FIS Team Tour
at the podium in Willingen, but came in second in
Oberstdorf. All four Austrian athletes (Stefan Kraft,
Wolfgang Loitzl, Martin Koch, Gregor Schlierenzauer)
made consistent jumps and scored 1529.3 points.
Today World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer (192
and 202.5 m) was not their best, youngster Stefan
Kraft (205.5 and 208 m) earned the most points with
his total of 403.4 points. Austria achieved another
podium finish with the third place in the FIS Team
Tour.
"We did our best today, but we also didn't
have a lot of luck. Actually we already lost the
FIS Team Tour in Willingen. In a team competition
it's always exciting when your teammates are jumping.
You wish them the best and today it paid off. My
goal for Val di Fiemme is to be on the team for
the large hill competition", told Kraft.
With the third place in this team event, Slovenia
could not defend the lead in FIS Team Tour. Despite
the strong performance of Robert Kranjec, who posted
jumps on 211 m and 212.5 m, team made with him,
Jurij Tepes, Jaka Hvala and Peter Prevc earned only
1523.6 points. "I'm not angry that we didn't
win. That's ski jumping, sometimes your are on top,
sometimes you are not. We are still satisfied with
the Team Tour. Today we made a few mistakes and
they were too big to win. The Norwegians were extremely
strong today and I congratulate them on their awesome
performance. We have to show our best jumps in order
to be among the best in Val di Fiemme", said
Peter Prevc.
In front of their home crowd the local heroes of
Germany could not celebrate a podium result both
in the team event and FIS Team Tour overall. Veteran
Michael Neumayer (201 m and 209.5 m) and Severin
Freund (205 m and 205.5 m) earned good points for
the German team. The Germans would have succeeded
in making the podium finish, but Richard Freitag
had big problems in his second jump and landed and
196 m.
Japan took part in the Sunday’s event without Daiki
Ito, who was one of the best athletes of the individual
competition. Despite the absence of the 27-year
old, the young team of Junshiro Kobayashi, Reruhi
Shimizu, Yuta Watase and Taku Takeuchi came in fifth
with their total of 1387.3 points.
The sixth place went to the young team of Poland.
Krzysztof Biegun, Jan Ziobro, Aleksander Zniszczol
and Klemens Muranka earned 1279.6 points. Vojtech
Stursa, Borek Sedlak, Cestmir Kozisek and Anton
Hajek collected 1198.8 points and finished seventh.
Yet again Anton Hajek was the best Czech with his
jumps on 195 m and 211 m. The Finnish team with
Sami Heiskanen, Ossi-Pekka Valta, Lauri Asikainen
and Olli Muotka came in eighth with a total of 1138.1
points.
After a break of two days, the athletes will be
back at the hill on Wednesday for the first official
training rounds of the World Championships.