Gold for Anders Bardal
Snowfall and the floodlight created a fantastic scenery for an exciting competition in Val di Fiemme. Norwegian Anders Bardal captured the gold medal with his impressive second jump. Silver went to Gregor Schlierenzauer, Peter Prevc of Slovenia won the bronze medal.
Anders Bardal showed a fantastic performance at the Trampolino dal Ben and clearly captured the gold medal with a total of 252.6 points. The Norwegian was in the lead already after his first jump on 103.5 m. With his final jump on 100 m under a difficult weather conditions he could win the World Championship title. "I don't know how to feel yet, maybe I realize it later. It's great. It's a beautiful day and it was an exciting and difficult competition. It's very important for the team to win a medal in the first competition, we have really good jumpers and it's looking good for us", the newly crowned World Champion said after his win.
Gregor Schlierenzauer could not celebrate his second title at World Championships today, but won his second silver medal. In the first and in the final round Alexander Pointner decided, that the World Cup leader should start from a lower gate. The tactics seemed to work, as Schlierenzauer reached a total of 248.4 points for the jumps on 98 and 97.5 m. "I'm very satisfied, it's not always as easy as it looks. It was a difficult competition today. My jumps were not perfect, Anders was the best today and he is the well-deserved winner. My goal was to win an individual medal here and I achieved that now", he told after the competition.
Peter Prevc was the underdog at the Trampolino dal Ben. The Slovene posted a jump on 102.5 m in the first round and earned himself a good position in the fight for the medals. The 20-year-old could handle the pressure and adrenaline in the final and landed at 98.5 m. He earned 244.3 points, but still had to wait for the results of the rivals. After weaker jumps of Richard Freitag and Kamil Stoch, Prevc stood on the podium in an individual competition at World Championships for the first time.
Strong team of Germany
The German jumpers were among the best on Saturday and had a good chance for a podium. Severin Freund missed the bronze medal by only 1.9 points. He landed at 101 m and 99 m and reached a total of 242.6 points. In fact, Richard Freitag was the one, who was closer to the podium today. The 22-year-old was 4th after his first jump on 103.5 m, but could not defend his place and finished 6th. Andreas Wank made two consistent jumps on 99.5 m and came in on a surprisingly good 9th place. The oldest German, Michael Neumayer was 18th.
Mixed emotions in Polish team
Kamil Stoch was secondnd after the first round with a chance for the title. He then jumped on 97 m in the final, but had big troubles at the landing and lost a lot of points. The 25-year-old finished eighth overall. A good result was achieved by Maciej Kot. The athlete of Zakopane finished 11th. Piotr Zyla was 23rd and Dawid Kubacki, who presented himself in astrong shape, could not show another good jump in the first round and came in 31st.
Thomas Morgenstern could defend the title won two years ago at the Midtstubakken in Oslo. But he was still one of the best jumpers today and surprised with his fifth place. "The landing was my problem in the final round. I did not make the telemark and that mistake could cost me the podium", he explained.
The Japanese jumpers did not do that well in the competition. Taku Takeuchi was their best as seventh. Daiki Ito (96 m and 96.5 m; 230.6 points) and Yuta Watase (95 m and 95.5 m; 224 points) made consistent jumps and finished 15th and 21st. Noriaki Kasai was consideren one of the contestants for the podium today but he could not even make a cut for the final round. The Japanese veteran came in 35th after his jump on 92.5 m.
Very good performance of Descombes Sevoie
Vincent Descombes Sevoie of France was one of the biggest surprises on Saturday. He posted jumps on 96.5 m and 98 m and finished as 14th with his 231 points. His only one teammate, Ronan Lamy Chappuis, was 38th.
All four Finnish athletes failed to make the cut for the final round. Anssi Koivuranta, who is still on his way back to a good physical condition after the surgery, was the best Finn as 39th.