The Summer Grand Prix 2012 arrived in Hakuba, Japan

The Summer Grand Prix 2012 arrived in Hakuba, Japan

The qualification for the following jumping set place today at 6p.m. local time (which means 11a.m. in mid-Europe) with rather cloudy weather and 25°C.

While the trial round was dominated by Europeans of different nations (Dawid Kubacki, Andreas Wank, Robert Hrgota and Tom Hilde -in this order), the qualification itself showed that the Japanese athletes are well prepared to show how familiar they are with Hakuba’s jumping.

Newcomer Sho Suzuki won the qualification with 123m (120.5points) ahead of team mate Noriaki Kasai (40yrs; ), who jumped half a meter shorter, and Kento Sakuyama (119.5m). Robert Hrgota, who finished the training as third and was actually leading the qualification, was disqualified due to a too big suit. He won’t be allowed to jump tomorrow but has another chance on Sunday’s qualification shortly before the last competition. Also Mika Kulmala from Finland had bad luck and was disqualified.

It was a good day for Vladimir Zografski (fourth) and Andreas Stjernen (fifth). Both landed their best qualification results this year. Danny Queck and Bartlomiej Klusek, who are in Hakuba for the first time, followed on the other places.

The farthest jumps in training went to Robert Hrgota with 134.5m and Swiss jumper Gregor Deschwanden (132.5m). During the qualification the best jumps went to the prequalified athletes Tom Hilde and Simon Ammann with 124.5m each. Alexey Korolev from Kazakhstan and Petr Chaadaev didn’t qualify for tomorrow’s competition.

Here are the official results: Qualification Hakuba, Friday, 24.05.12

The competition will set place tomorrow at 6p.m. local time and will be broadcasted by Eurosport at 3p.m. in the afternoon and by Eurosport 2 live at 11.30a.m.. The Sunday-competition will be on air live at 8a.m., 26.08.12 on Eurosport.

So don’t forget to turn on the TV and cheer for some great competitions!

-by Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)