Analysis: Severin Freund with his next victory- first individual competition in Lillehammer a close

Analysis: Severin Freund with his next victory- first individual competition in Lillehammer a close fight

After our report of yesterday’s results, let’s have a closer look to the performances of the athletes:

It seems like there has been no break between the Summer-Grand-Prix final in Klingenthal on October 3rd and today’s first individual competition in Lillehammer as Severin Freund seamless tied in with his summer performance (99/100.5m). He sovereignly left Thomas Morgenstern (99/102m) and Anders Bardal (98/101m) behind.

But Saturday’s most exciting surprise has been Andreas Wellinger. The 17-year old German from SC Ruhpolding started with bib no. five and held the leadership until the end of the first round (103m; 134.9points). This has been the farthest jump in the whole competition, ladies and gentlemen! Neither Freund nor Bardal nor Morgenstern could push him away from there. Anders Jacobsen, as great as before his time-out, queued behind Wellinger with 100.5m and a distance of 1.6 points. The family father of 27 finished fourth in the end. Wellinger on the other hand kept his nerves and jumped 98.5m, which brought him to rank five, only 0.9points from the podium (and 2.4points from the victory). This is the good or rather bad thing about the normal hill (depends on how you see it): All athletes are close together and only a few meters decide between out and victory.

Only Italian in the competition has been Colloredo, who ended the event on place 23. At least he left behind splendors like Robert Kranjec, Tom Hilde, Andi Wank and Jurij Tepeš, who failed to qualify for the final round.

Finland’s hope Sami Niemi unfortunately had a grave jumping mistake and landed already after 82.5m. His team mate Happonen – only remaining Finn in the event- finished as 22th. Denis Kornilov had bad luck and fell after his landing, which threw him out of the game although he had a 92m try, which should have been enough for coming farther. However, he felt fine.

Anders Fannemel, Rena’s national champion of last week, showed stable jumps and finished sixth, with a 10-point-gap between him and youngster Wellinger (256.4points).

Manuel Fettner on place seven beat Schlierenzauer by 0.6points, which should give him a good reputation for the next team-decisions.

Japan’s best athlete Takeuchi landed on rank nine, outstanding Slovenian has been Peter Prevc on tenth place.

Shimizu and Stoch, names that should be in our mind, appear on the end of the result list (28th, 30th).

• By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)