Andreas Wellinger showed two great jumps under windy
conditions in the Vogtland-Arena and was already
in the lead after the first round with 135.5 m.
133 m in the final earned him 261.9 points and a
lead of 4.4 points to Kofler. The Austrian, who
started early with bib 14, was in the lead for almost
an hour in the first round with 133 m and showed
some consistency with a 133.5 m jump in the final.
Ahonen came from behind in the second round. With
127 m he was only 14th after the first round, with
130.5 m the 36-year-old than moved to third with
245.0 points. Severin Freund of Germany posted the
longest jump of the day in with 136 m in the final
round and came in only 0.4 points behind Ahonen.
Slovenia's Jernej Damjan, who came to Klingenthal
as the overall leader, had no chance to qualify
for the final round with only 101 m and could so
only watch Wellinger taking the overall title.
The new summer-champion Andreas Wellinger was satisfied
with his performance at the end of a windy day:
"Winning here is extremely nice, but it's especially
important for me that I was able to show two really
good jumps. The winter is most important for the
whole team, we have a good team spirit. I think
that Jernej Damjan had some back luck with the conditions
today, for me everything went well. Being on the
podium in all competitions I took part in this summer
is sensational. I don't feel any pressure, if I'll
be successful it's great, if not, I still have a
lot of time."
Also Andreas Kofler was obviously relieved after
his first podium result since December. It was the
first time among the Top 3 in a Grand Prix for him
since 2008: "I'm happy that I can attend a
press conference again. My performance was very
good today, it was a step forward, especially compared
to yesterday's training. The current development
is very positive and now I'm looking forward to
the next competitions, they will then be in the
World Cup. You could tell here, that we are all
close together. Everyone in the Austrian team is
very motivated."
Janne Ahonen seemed to be a bit surprised by his
performance: "I'm satisfied with my first podium
result after my comeback, it happened earlier than
I expected. I still have a lot of work to do, but
this gives me a lot of self confidence. The last
two or three years were very difficult for our team
and I would be happy if I ccould help the team with
this success. The other jumpers from Finland are
getting better and better and so we will see a strong
Finnish team again sooner or later."
Jan Matura came in fifth for the Czech team and
missed the podium by only 2.9 points. This was his
second-best result this summer after a fourth place
at the Grand Prix opener in Hinterzarten. The Polish
team had to deal with a last place of World Champion
Kamil Stoch due to bad luck with the conditions.
Dawid Kubacki, Maciej Kot, Stefan Hula and Klemens
Muranka came in sixth, seventh, ninth and 11th and
confirmed the strong performances of the past couple
of months. Yuta Watase of Japan followed up to his
seventh place in Nizhniy Tagil with an eighth place
here, while Peter Prevc was the best Slovene as
tenth.
Gregor Schlierenzauer still has some room for improvement.
The record World Cup winner of Austria was 12th
in his first competition this season and came in
ahead of local hero Richard Freitag, who was 14th.
Vincent Descombes Sevoie ended the summer season
as 17th, followed by the best Russian Dimitry Vassiliev
and Estonian Kaarel Nurmsalu.
The final test for the upcoming World Cup season
was disappointing for Norway. Rune Velta was the
best of the team as 21st. Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes
(CAN), third in the qualification, came in 23rd,
close ahead of Davide Bresadola (ITA).
In the Grand Prix overall ranking Andreas Wellinger
was the best with a total of 440 points, 21 points
ahead of Jernej Damjan and 117 points ahead of third-placed
Anders Bardal (NOR). Matjaz Pungertar was fourth,
mainly thanks to a strong start of the season, Krzysztof
Biegun was the best Pole as fifth. The German team
clearly won the Nation's Cup ahead of Poland and
Slovenia.