Hakuba: Next victories for Andreas Wank

Hakuba: Next victories for Andreas Wank!

The 24-years jumper from Germany seems to be unbeatable! Wank, who gained his first victory in Hinterzarten a week ago, showed once again that he’s the deserved yellow-bib-possessor. After yesterday’s victory with a lead of 8.7points ahead of Simon Ammann on second place he repeated his winner-jumps (125.5 and 118m; 245.2points) with a gap of 12.2 points to second Jurij Tepeš (117 and 119m; 233points) today.

Saturday of surpises

The competition on Saturday brought some new faces in the SGP, an injury and a fall regarding the places for some good jumpers.

Taku Takeuchi, who hasn’t shown himself in the Summer Grand Prix 2012 until now, showed with his tries of 120.5 and 127.5m (240.5points; 6th place) that he didn’t lose his winter- form. Today he finished 7th. We are excited whether to see him in the upcoming competitions in Almaty, Hinzenbach and the finals in Klingenthal!

Daiki Ito, SGP winner of 2010, did not attend the jumpings in Hakuba. It is said, that he is in training but obviously not in form.

40-year old Noriaki Kasai is still familiar with the podium. He jumped sovereign on rank three (124.5/126m; 248.3points). Today he was a clearly wind victim. Being fourth after his first jump, he had to jump from a lower gate and less good wind conditions and fell back on place 13 in the end.

Double- Olympic medal winner Simon Ammann on the other hand was a lucky guy on both days. In the Saturday competition he could jubilate because of a second place (126.5/125.5m; 251.1points).

Michael Neumayer unfortunately fell in the outrun and suffered a shoulder dislocation, which was treated right in the stadium. He wasn’t able to take part in today’s competition but could take place four into his upcoming vacation time (123/126m; 246.1points).

On rank five we could find Dawid Kubacki, who is still eager to fight for his best position in the SGP-ranking.

Best Norwegian jumper was Andreas Stjernen on place nine with jumps of 121 and 122.5m and a total score of 235.9points. Tom Hilde landed on the 17th rank due to a mistake in his first jump. Bjørn Einar Romøren missed the final round by ten places.

Surprisingly good has been Gregor Deschwanden from Switzerland. The 21-year old jumper held place six after the first round and finished 13th. That he could become a constant part of the top thirty was shown today with his 18th place and the 11th best performance in the final round.

Nicolas Mayer also seems to get a stable form. He finished 12th(235.3points).

Sunday’s hot competition

Today’s competition has been hot in many ways. The race set place at 3p.m. local time, 31°C and unbowed sunshine.

Andreas Wank approved that he is able to cope with the weather, as well as difficult wind conditions. The leading-jumper didn’t let Jurij Tepeš (2.; 117/119m) nor Dawid Kubacki on third place (113/127m; 229.4points) go by.

The slowly going competition, which brought unboastful jumps in the first round, turned out to be an up-wind-competition in the first half of the final round. Danny Queck (128m; 11th), Jan Matura (129m; 9th), Alexander Zniszczol (126m; 14th) and especially Gregor Deschwanden and Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes (132m each; 18th and 23rd) profited from this updraft. But when the wind changed its direction and became lower, the top ten struggled to keep their places. Noriaki Kasai lost nine places, Tom Hilde, who was on third place after the first round, lost seven places and finished 10th.

The gate changing became a game and made the final of the competition a pretty excited event. Only the athletes, who made it to the podium, as well as deserved fourth Vladimir Zografski (112.5/122.5m; 229.2points), showed their superiority to those wind-conditions. Zografski by the way missed the podium by only 0.2points to third Dawid Kubacki. Simon Ammann finished 5th.

Finn Olli Muotka (24th) and Norwegian jumper Bjørn Einar Romøren (25th) can be happy about points. This also applies to the Koreans Heung-Chul Choi (28th) and Hyun-Ki Kim (39th), as well as Andreas Wellinger (16years old) from Germany, who landed on place 26 and gained five points in the SGP-overall.

There’s also kind of a new athlete you should keep your attention on: Matjaz Pungertar (22) from Slovenia puts himself in the top ten with jumps of 115 and 119m and a total score of 228.1 points, which made him 6thtoday. That this isn’t only a one-hit-wonder is clear after his result of yesterday’s competition (15th) and the qualification on Friday (9th).

Nicolas Mayer has been disqualified due to a too long ski, which means he didn’t weigh enough for the length of his ski.

The next Summer Grand Prix (for the ladies and the men) will take place on 22nd and 23rd of September in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

• By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)