Ski Flying World Championships becomes gorgeous experience for athletes and fans

During the whole World Championships blue sky and bright sunshine lured about 70.000 enthusiastic spectators in the Stillach Valley. The ski flyers contributed their part to the outstanding atmosphere and got the audience fired up by far jumps. At the same time the athletes were rewarded with frenetic shouts of encouragement.
Both in the Individual and the team competition there was no stopping the spectators in the stadium. That was no surprise as the sportive performances which were offered to them were at the top of the line. So the crowd was witness to young Gregor Schlierenzauer advancing to the star of the World Championships. Last Thursday he debuted on the Ski Flying hill, on Saturday he already held the gold medal for his first big title in his hands. He has been dreaming about this since he was a little boy.
Also during the team competition there was a lot of thrill.

Among the top favorites three teams were mentioned but the Austrians were given wings by the triumph of the individual medals the day before that it was impossible to beat them. Once again Austria was decorated with gold. At the last minute Finland made sure the silver medal ahead of Norway. After weaker performances in the individual competition the German team managed to reach place four.

Quotes

Thomas Morgenstern, AUT:
„Yesterday we have already had great success. Thanks to the team for the coachwork. It was a very very nice feeling to be a part of such a team. I am glad that we have reached our aim.“

Martin Koch, AUT:
„I didn´t even dare to dream to go home with two medals. Unfortunately we won´t be able to make a big party tonight because we will travel to Scandinavia next week. But we will clink glasses tonight for sure.“

Gregor Schlierenzauer, AUT:
„I haven´t internalized the whole thing yet. Yesterday a dream came true for me. The whole team had got ready and worked for this day, we are really in a good shape. Of course we were counted among the favourites, but also other nations were mentioned as candidates for the victory. We have very good jumpers in our team and were highly motivated. The whole team, from psychological adviser up to the service persons have worked fantastically together. We want to say thank you to the whole team. It´s is an immense joy for us.“

Janne Happonen, FIN:
„We are very confident with the silver medal. Th etrial round was better but the inrun track became slower due to the sunshine.“

Martin Schmitt, GER:
„The last weeks were quite difficult for me. I felt insecure. I have trained to get back the feeling für my jumps. And I succeeded. We cannot be satisfied with the team result but the forth place was realistic. The three top nations have arranged the victory among each other. The Austrian team has deserved the victory. I want to take part in all the World Cups which are left this season.“ „All in all it wasn´t perfect but form e personally it was pretty OK. We will see what happens in the future.“

Team gold goes to Austria as well

Magnificient sunshine and springlike temperatures provided the perfect stage for a thrilling team competition of the Ski Flying World Championships. The Austrians who were in the lead after the first round didn´t let anyone take away their triumph in the final. Quickened by his gold medal Gregor Schlierenzauer flew to the farthest distance of the day (217 metres) and made perfect the victory for his team.
The fight for place two was especially exciting. Norway´s margin ahead of the Finns was filmy after round one. But then the Norwegians became nervous again and had to let the neighbour pass by 23,8 points. Bevore Janne Ahonen got ready for his flight, the win of the silver medal was pretty obvious. The routinier and bronze medal winner flew to 194 metres and so he made him and his compatriots become runner up world champion. Germany took over place four ahead of Russia, Czech Republic, Japan and France.

Austrian jumpers in the lead

After the first scored round the Austrian team leads ahead of Norway and Finland. Koch, Morgenstern, Kofler and Schlierenzauer presented themselves strong again and with 765,3 points and 48,6 points ahead of the runner up they provided a very good basis for the final.
The gap between between the Skandinavian teams on places two and three instead is quite small. They are only seperated by 4,3 points. On position four there are the German eagles. Martin Schmitt achieved the best jump among his compatriots and landed his flight at 183,5 metres after he had started off from gate 35.
Martin Koch scored the farthest jump of the first round (214,5 metres). Now at 3.15 pm the eight best nations will complete their second jump. For Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, Slovenia and Kazakhstan the competition is already over.

Hoermann opens the team competition

DSV president Alfons Hoermann has opened the team competition on Sunday. At noontime the athletes jumped off the hill to complete their trial round. Altogether 13 teams will take part in the event today, that´s a new record at Ski Flying World Championships.
Olli Harri from Finland reached the farthest jump of 216 metres. Some athletes resigned a flight while others were still hiding their real potential like new World Champion Gregor Schlierenzauer who landed at 200,5 metres. The first scored round begins at 1.45 pm before the final starts at 3.15 pm.

Austria, Finland and Norway are top favorites for the team event

The new World Champion has just been crowned and immediately it is about the medals once more on Sunday. In the team competition the flyers go for gold again. Especially the ones who went away empty-handed yesterday are highly motivated. Surely the Norwegians will attack as Bjoern Einar Romoeren gave away all chances on a medal after his last jump yesterday. Today he wants to compensate his loss because for the Norwegians it also counts to defend the team title from 2006.
Nevertheless this will be a difficult venture as the Austrian competitors are a hot candidate for the title as well. The four athletes ranked on the places one, two, seven and 16 in the Individual. Moreover the Finns around Janne Ahonen have shown strong performances this weekend. So one can expect that the victory will be struggled for among these three nations.
Altogether 13 nations will take part in the team competition: Sweden, Kazakhstan, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Japan, Russia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Austria.
The top five teams will start off like this:
Austria: Martin Koch, Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler, Gregor Schlierenzauer
Norway: Bjoern Einar Romoeren, Anders Bardal, Tom Hilde, Anders Jacobsen
Finland: Janne Happonen, Harri Olli, Matti Hautamaeki, Janne Ahonen
Switzerland: Simon Ammann, Andreas Kuettel, Antoine Guignard, Guido Landert
Germany: Georg Spaeth, Michael Uhrmann, Martin Schmitt, Michael Neumayer