Half the way is gone in this season's Four-Hills-Tournament
Half the way is gone in this season's Four-Hills-Tournament
It turned out to be a stony way for the Germans, as Richard Freitag and Severin Freund disappointed in Oberstdorf as 13th and 15th and could barely enter the top ten in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (9th and 10th), where Markus Eisenbichler didn't manage to qualify at all.
For the Austrians it was an easy path as Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayböck flew easily to the top places (1st and 2nd as well as 6th and 7th). Gregor Schlierenzauer is not the chief pilot in this tournament but will be a powerful attacker in Innsbruck, as he was 4th in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Simon Amman hit a blind alley for his destination „overall-victory“ as he fell in Oberstdorf. This is the 17th year that he can't make it to the top. His second place in Garmisch was a good consolation but might not be enough to make him satisfied in the end.
On the other hand some seemed to find a shortcut to the top as Anders Jacobsen did in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. His round rankings in training, qualification and competition was: 1st,2nd,1st,1st,1st,1st. This is the best series of jumps anyone has done this season, according to @SkiJumpInsights.
His teammate Anders Fannemel obviously left the interstate and is now on a byway- hopefully he finds the right drive-up to the top again. Anyway, Anders Jacobsen jumped himself on the list of favorites, where only Kraft, Hayböck and Prevc remain. The rest of the field might be too far behind to play a role in the overall. Surely, no one expected it to happen like that.
We all know how great an athlete Kamil Stoch is but that he would return as strong as ever while lacking so much training and jumps, was absolutely amazing. He finished as 4th and 15th and it is very likely that he'll enter the top ten in the remaining competitions.
Roman Koudelka was 7th and 11th in the German part of the Four-Hills. You can't say that this isn't a good result but one definitely hoped for more as he was better before the Christmas break.
And last but not least, we should take a look at the remaining attackers that we named in our last issue: Jernej Damjan had a nice day as 9th in Oberstdorf but had bad luck in Garmisch, when he was losing against Johann A. Forfang. On the other hand, Noriaki Kasai is still as amazing as expected. Although he's 27.9 points behinds leader Kraft in the overall table, he reached the 8th rank in both races.
But in the end we would like to introduce a new attacker that no one really expected to be so good: Rune Velta. The Norwegian improved this season's performance with making it to the 5th place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Let's see, whether he can keep this level in the Austrian competitions.
Let's have a look at the next stations: Last year, no Austrian made it to the podium in Innsbruck, while Gregor Schlierenzauer was able to win in 2013. in 2012 Kofler and Schlierenzauer have been the best, and going back another year, Thomas Morgenstern was the successor. So all in all, the Austrians play a big role in getting a podium in Innsbruck but as you can see, surprises can happen.
The same applies for Bischofshofen: Last year, Thomas Diethart secured his overall victory in B'hofen, followed by Prevc and Thomas Morgenstern, in 2013 Schlierenzauer won ahead of Jacobsen and Kraft- that sounds like it could happen like this again!
- by Peggy Kierstan
