Simon Ammann is the first Swiss in history who could win the overall World Cup. The 28-year-old celebrated his third victory in a row in the World Cup and with another success in Oslo he could follow in the footsteps of Matti Hautamaeki who won all four competitions of the Nordic Tournament in 2002.

On the Olympic hill from 1994 Ammann won with two consistent strong jumps and a total of 274.5 points. He benefited from a weak final jump of Poland's Adam Malysz, who was in the lead after the first round. But in the final round he jumped only 127.5 m, six meters short of Ammann, and finished third (265.9 points).

Skijumping is magical for Ammann

"That was amazing. It's very emotional to end the season like that. A clear victory in the World Cup and that I know won the big trophy is is awesome", told Ammann, for whom skijumping is still "magical". "To beat Gregor and Adam here is something special. They're jumping very strong", said the new overall winner. "Swiss skijumper never had a year like that, that makes me very proud. My whole life was about achieving that."

Austrian highflyer Gregor Schlierenzauer was second and is getting closer to his best shape again. At the end he was only 3.1 points behind Ammann. "That was good competition. I know that I can beat Simon and Adam. My jumps are not perfect but I'm getting the right feeling back. My goal now are the skiflying World Championships", said the 20-year-old.

Overall World Cup winners of nine nations

With the triumph of the Swiss, jumpers from nine different nations could win the overall World Cup. All of the top nations, except Japan, could win the title at least once.

Once again the Austrians showed a great team performance. Schlierenzauer on the podium. David Zauner fourth, Thomas Morgenstern fifth and Andreas Kofler sixth. More than convincing.  

New French on top

The one-man-show of Emmanuel Chedal in the French team seems to be over. After a good competition of Vincent Descombes Sevoie in Kuopio, the 26-year-old was again in the Top 20 as 16th. Chedal landed on a strong seventh place, a good day for head coach Pekka Niemelae.

Martin Schmitt was the best German as 13th. "The competition was okay. I showed two pretty good jumps and I can be satisfied with my performance in the final", he said. 

The Norwegians again tried new bindings for which Ammann's system served as a model. But they made some modifications. Instead of the aluminium piece the athletes of Mika Kojonkoski use a small moveable part. Bjoern Einar Romoeren who returned to the World Cup after he was not nominated for the last events and was best of his team as eighth. Johan Remen Evensen (11th) and Roar Ljoekelsoey (12th) also achieved good results.

Well-known athletes struggeled with the low inrun

Like already in the past competitions, the inrun length was low, due to the outstanding performances of Ammann and Malysz at the moment. Many athletes struggeled with the low speed.

World Champion Andreas Kuettel, who's just not getting in good form this season, four Germans, among them Michael Neumayer and Andreas Wank and also the Poles Stefan Hula and Lukasz Rutkowski were out after the first round and they were in good company: Tom Hilde and four Finns, also Matti Hautamaeki who was third in the qualification, missed the final. 

Ammann close the victory in the Nordic Tournament

With only one more competition left, Ammann already won the overall World Cup. He now has 1549 points and is leading by an uncatchable margin ahead of Schlierenzauer (1346 points).

With 809.9 points Ammann also has a clear lead of 35 points in the overall ranking of the Nordic Tournament over Malysz (774.3 points). Morgenstern is third in this ranking.

Tags: lillehammer | nordic tournament | ammann

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