Slovenia wins exciting team competition
The 15 000 who came to the Wielka Krokiew hill in Zakopane this evening saw an exciting team competition. The very last jumps decided about the first and second place in a duel on a high level under difficult conditions. The opponents in the battle for today's win were, unexpectedly, not Austria, Norway and Germany, but Slovenia and Poland.
The Polish team was in the lead from the first jump and defended this position until the shortly before the end. But the seventh of eight jumps was the undoing for the Polish team. Krzysztof Mietus landed on 108 m in his second jump and so the team lost the chance to capture the first ever win in a team competition for Poland.
Kamil Stoch, Maciej Kot, Krzsysztof Mietus and Piotr Zyla could still celebrate the second place, a strong result for the young Polish team. "I can't say that I'm satisfied. The jumps were not that bad, but I should have made a better second jump", Mietus told after the competition.
The Slovenian team with Jurij Tepes, Peter Prevc, Robert Kranjec and youngster Jaka Hvala took the lead after the bad jump of Mietus and defended it until the end. Slovenia scored a total of 963.5 points, Poland 954.4 points. "We didn't think that we could win and now we are more than happy. Zakopane is always special for me and the atmosphere here is great. I don't think I'm the leader of the team, we competed together and we won together", youngster Hvala said.
The third place went to the team of Austria. The athletes of Alex Pointner competed without Gregor Schlierenzauer, who is still suffering from a cold. Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler, Thomas Morgenstern and Stefan Kraft reached a total of 931.1 points. "My jumps were not perfect, but I was able to improve my performance in every jump. Now I'm looking forward to tomorrow's competition. Adam is missing here, but the atmosphere in Zakopane is still perfect", said Kofler.
Fourth place for German team
The German team with Severin Freund, Andreas Wank, Andreas Wellinger and Richard Freitag reached 908.4 points. Not enough for a place on the podium, probably a bit disappointing for the team who won the first team competition this winter.
The athletes of the Czech team showed a strong performance today: Jakub Janda, Roman Koudelka, Jan Matura and Lukas Hlava: a final score of 833.7 points for the team.
Sixth place for Russia
Alexey Romashov, Ilja Roslikaov, Denis Kornilov and Dimitry Vassiliev finished sixth with 831.8 points. A nice success, although more would have been possible for the team of Alexander Arefiev.
erreichten mit 831,8 Punkten den sechsten Platz. Eigentlich ein schöner Erfolg, obwohl an diesem Tag mehr drin gewesen wäre für die Männer von Alexander Arefiev.
Bad day and some luck for Norway
Moment of shock for Norwegian Tom Hilde in the final: Hilde had big problems in his second jump but was able to land safely at 90 m. Also Anders Jacobsen had some problems and jumped only on 113.5 m. At the end the athletes of Alex Stoeckl came in seventh.
Surprisingly the team of Italy could qualify for the final round of the best eight. Roberto Dellasega, Andrea Morassi, Davide Bresadola and their best, Sebastian Colloredo, reached a total of 781.3 points.
Disappointment for Japan and Finland
Daiki Ito, Shohei Tochimoto, Yuta Watase and Taku Takeuchi failed to make the cut for the second round with 396.0 points. They came in only 3.1 points behind Italy. Ville Larinto, Mika Kulmala, Jarkko Maeaettae and Lauri Asikainen also missed the final with 366.8 points.