opprettet på: 11.03.2013 11:20 / km

Richard Freitag scored 274.2 points at the Salpausselkae-hill and clearly captured his third World Cup win. The 21-year-old was in the lead already after his first jump on 126.5 m and with his 128.5 m in the final he could defend the first place.

 

"I'm very happy with today's competition. I think the two jumps today were my best this weekend. I wanted to jump better than yesterday, because I made some mistakes", told the winner.

 

The second place went to the second in the overall World Cup ranking, Anders Bardal. The Norwegian was sixth after the first round with a jump on 121.5 m. The World Champion from Predazzo could move up in the final with his 126 m, that earned him a total of 266.9 points. "It was a good day. The first jump was not perfect but still I wasn't far behind the best. The second jump was good and then I'm fighting for the top spots and that feels good. We wanted to close the gap to Austria in the Nation's Cup and now we are really getting close. There are still some competitions left, so everything can happen. The Nation's Cup is a big thing for us."

 

The third place on the podium was shared by Severin Freund and Anders Jacobsen with their 265.8 points. Freund showed two consistent jumps on 124 m and Jacobsen landed at 123 and 127 m. "My jumps today were definitely not as good as yesterday at the table, but I flew better. That's satisfying for me because in January and early February I sometimes was quite good at the table and never got into a good flying position. It's good to know that you can achieve good results also with small mistakes", said Freund.

 

And also Jacobsen was satisfied with how the weekend in Lahti ended for him. "I'm really satisfied today. I started really bad in training. I don't like this hill, I haven't done really well here so far, it's tricky. Today I was able to do something right and then the hill was perfect. The Nation's Cup is one of our main goals this season and we are really close now. We have a strong team and we're fighting in every competition."

 

Neither Kamil Stoch, nor Maciej Kot could achieve a podium result on Sunday. The World Champion from the big hill in Predazzo missed the third place by only 0.8 points with his total of 265.1 points. 21-year-old Kot scored 262.0 points for his jumps on 123 m and 125.5 m and came in sixth. The second best jump of the final was shown by Piotr Zyla, who finished 12th. With his 19th place Krzysztof Mietus completed the strong team performance of the Polish team of head coach Lukasz Kruczek.

 

Noriaki Kasai was the best of the “Air Nippon” at the Salpausselkae-hill. With his final jump on 126.5 m the Japanese veteran could move up from the 16th to the 9th place. The third Top 10 result this season for the 40-year-old in his 422nd World Cup competition. Also his teammates Daiki Ito (11th) and Taku Takeuchi (14th) showed a good performance.

 

No Austrians in the Top 10

 

None of the Austrian jumpers could finish among the best ten athletes. Two consistent jumps on 119.5 m and 122.5 m were shown by Gregor Schlierenzauer, but his total score of 251.0 points was only good enough for the 15th place. Manuel Fettner came in 17th and Wolfgang Loitzl was 21st. Stefan Kraft did well in Saturday’s team competition and but the Bronze medalist of the Junior World Championships in Liberec could not show a good performance again on Sunday and was 37th. Also Andreas Kofler failed to qualify for the final round.

 

Despite five Slovenian jumpers in the final round, it was not a very good day for the team of head coach Goran Janus. Peter Prevc was expected to fight for the top spots, but finished only 18th, two places better than Jurij Tepes. Also Robert Kranjec (26th) and Matjaz Pungertar (28th) could qualify for the second round, but could not keep up with the best on Sunday. Andraz Pograjc is the only one, who will have only positive memories of Sunday’s competition in Lahti. His jumps on 117 m and 111.5 m earned him a total of 217.2 points and his first World Cup point. Matic Benedik, who also made his World Cup debut, could not make the cut for the final and was 45th.

 

Youngsters not that strong anymore

 

The newcomers, who attracted a lot of attention at the beginning of the season, seem to be tired after a long winter. Andreas Wellinger (32nd), Jaka Hvala (33rd) and Karl Geiger (40th) could not reach the final round.

 

No points for the Finns

 

Both Finnish jumpers did not make it to the final round on Sunday. With his 110 m and 101 m Lauri Asikainen was the best Finn as 44th. Olli Muotka came in 48th. It was a disappointing result for the hosts, after Anssi Koivuranta came in fourth here in Lahti last winter.

 

No Crystal Globe yet for Schlierenzauer

 

Gregor Schlierenzauer could won his second overall World Cup title on Sunday, but his 15th place was not good enough. The Austrian remains clearly in the lead with his 1336 points. Anders Bardal is second with 862 points. Anders Jacobsen (792 points) is third, followed by Severin Freund (759 points).

 

Complete results as pdf-file