Phillip Sjoeen of Norway won the first of two FIS
Grand Prix competitions in Hakuba, Japan. The 18-year-old
scored a total of 277.5 points with his jumps on
125 m and 131 m and came in six points ahead of
Slovenia's Jernej Damjan.
The veteran jumped on 129 m and 128 m and prevented
another Norwegian double victory by finishing 2.1
points ahead of Daniel-Andre Tande. Damjan told
afterwards: “I like Hakuba and Hakuba likes me.
It was a good competition. My second jump was not
perfect, but I'm satisfied. I don't have problems
with the long trip and the time difference, I'm
an old guy and used to that.”
First podium for Tande
Sjoeen's 20-year-old teammate Tande landed at 128.5
m and 127.5 m. After his second place in Courchevel
last weekend, this was the first win in the Grand
Prix for Sjoeen. Tande achieved his first ever podium
result in this summer series. “Of course I'm very
happy. My jumps are getting better and better. I
want to continue on this level also in winter, my
goal is the World Championships”, Sjoeen said. And
Tande added: “I'm extremely happy. It's fun to jump
on this hill. The long trip to Japan is not easy,
I didn't sleep a lot and that made it difficult.”
Despite the longest jump of the day on 132.5 m and
130 m in the final, local hero Taku Takeuchi missed
the podium and came in fourth with 266.4 points.
German veteran Michael Neumayer finished on a good
fifth place. The athlete of Berchtesgaden jumped
on 128.5 m and 126.5 m and scored 259.8 points.
Good results for Asikainen and Niemi
Slovene Matjaz Pungertar was sixth with 256.5 points,
Lauri Asikainen achieved a good result for Finland
in seventh, 1.5 points behind Pungertar. “I'm really
satisfied. I made a huge progress in Courchevel
already and now here as well”, the Finn told. Shohei
Tochimoto (251.5 points) in eighth and Noriaki Kasai
(247.4 points) in tenth provided a good result for
the Japanese team. Simon Ammann could not take a
big advantage of the absence of many top athletes
and came in ninth (249.0 points).
With Sami Niemi in eleventh another Finn achieved
a good result today. Germany's Markus Eisenbichler
might be able to earn more starts in the Grand Prix
with his 12th place. Jakub Wolny was the best of
the Polish team in 13th, Junshiro Kobayashi and
Russia's Vladislav Boyarintsev completed the Top
15. This was a career-best for Boyarintsev in the
Grand Prix.
Geiger not yet satisfied
Just like Reruhi Shimizu (17th), also Swiss Gregor
Deschwanden (21st) and Germany's Karl Geiger (22nd)
are currently not in their best shape. Geiger told:
“I didn't do that well on this hill so far and I
wanted more. When you see who is not competing here
you think that the field is not that strong. But
you can also see how many strong jumpers they have
in Japan.” Austrian Clemens Aigner seized his opportunity,
qualified for the final round in his first ever
appearance in the Grand Prix and finished 27th.
“I'm satisfied that I reached the second round.
In the second competition I want to attack again.”