Two Norwegians on top in Zakopane
After a very bad seventh place in Friday's team competition in Zakopane, the Norwegian team of head coach Alexander Stoeckl fought back with an impressive double victory today. Anders Jacobsen as firth (128.5 m and 131.5 m; 273.3 points) and Anders Bardal as second (132.5 m and 132 m; 271.6 points) rocked the sold out (25 000 spectators) Wielka Krokiew Arena in Zakopane. Local hero Kamil Stoch (133 m and 127 m; 268.7 points) achieved a highly acclaimed third place.
"The atmosphere here in Zakopane is incredible, the fans are totally crazy, that's great. It was a tough fight with Kamil on his home hill, I'm very happy that I could win here", said Jacobsen, for whom it was the first win in winter in Zakopane. It was his third win in the World Cup, the third this winter.
Anders Jacobsen in the Hall of Fame »
For Bardal, who won in Wisla on Wednesday, this second place proved his top shape at the moment. Last winter's overall World Cup winner was absolutely satisfied with his result today: "Our team is on the right track and we can compete on a very high level. Now we are already looking ahead to the World Championships in Val di Fiemme", told Bardal.
Local hero Stoch was in the lead after the first jump, but he could not keep up with the Norwegians with his final jump on 127 m. "I'm still satisfied with this weekend, I'm in a good shape now and I'm focusing on the World Championships in Val di Fiemme. I feel a bit sorry for the fans that we couldn't win the team competition yesterday. But we will do that next year here in Zakopane", Stoch explained. He now moved to seventh in the overall World Cup ranking.
Richard Freitag (130 m and 127.5 m; 262 points) was the best German as fourth. Severin Freund as 22nd and Andreas Wank as 24th were the other two Germans in the final. Andreas Wellinger (31st) and Maximilian Mechler (50th) could not qualify for the final round. After the fourth place in yesterday's team competition, it was yet another disappointing result for the team of head coach Werner Schuster, for whom Stefan Horngacher filled in in Poland. Severin Freund is now fourth in the overall World Cup. The German team will travel to Sapporo on Wednesday for the next two World Cup competitions on the upcoming weekend.
Matura getting better and better
Czech Jan Matura is getting better and better at the moment. Matura, 33-year-old reigning COC overall winner might even be capable of achieving his first ever podium result in the next couple of weeks. For his teammate Lukas Hlava the day was already over after the qualification: He was disqualified because his suit was not compliant to the rules.
Overall World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer took part in the competition despite a flu and had to be satisfied with the eighth place in a strong field. "I feel like 90 years old, but I want to jump", Schlierenzauer said before the competition. For a 90-year-old the two-time 4-Hills-Tournament winner showed a remarkable performance in Zakopane. The result also showed how dependent on Schlierenzauer the Austrian team is right now. Stefan Kraft was 11th, Michael Hayboeck 15th, Wolfgang Loitzl 25th and Thomas Morgenstern 27th. This showes that the team of Alex Pointner is currently not in a top shape. Andreas Kofler failed to make the cut for the second round as 35th.
Schlierenzauer leads in the overall ranking
Gregor Schlierenzauer is still leading in the overall World Cup with 840 points, Norwegian Anders Bardal is second with 655 points, followed by his teammate Anders Jacobsen (578 points) and Germany's Severin Freund (565 points).