Gregor Schlierenzauer celebrates his next victory, Colloredo finishes ninth!

Gregor Schlierenzauer celebrates his next victory, Colloredo finishes ninth!

Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly The 22-year old Austrian is unstoppable- his 104.5 and 105.5m made him the clear winner with a total of 270.7points. German rocket Severin Freund keeps the yellow bib with his second place (101.5/105.5m; 265.4points). Andreas Kofler on the other hand can be really happy with his best individual place since Sapporo in January this year: rank three (102.5/103.5m; 264.8points) ahead of his team mate Thomas Morgenstern, who managed 102 and 101.5m (259.7points). Best Norwegian has been last season’s overall winner Anders Bardal. Although the tall guy from Trondheim jumped 104.5, he wasn’t able to get a place on the podium because he didn’t set a proper telemark. (256.7points). But there’s one athlete, who improved his telemark and got better judges points than before: Michael Neumayer. The 33-year old calm guy from Germany started into the season with an amazing form. Today he secured himself rank eight with 100.5 and 104.5m. Right behind him landed Italy’s best jumper Sebastian Colloredo, who was the first one to crack the 100m-line (100.5/102.5m; 247.1points)! But let’s not forget about Slovenia’s comet Jaka Hvala (100/102.5m; 250.4points), who ended up as seventh, right behind Richard Freitag (101.5/100m; 255.9points). Reruhi Shimizu completed the top ten with (245.5points). Newcomer Andreas Wellinger and last year’s newcomer Andreas Wank, who already established himself with his SGP-victory, shared place eleven with 0.1points less than the 19-year old Japanese, who’s also in the WC for the first time.

Peter Prevc, our latest interview partner landed on rank 13, while German Danny Queck could improve and finished on place 19. Best jumper on home snow has been Denis Kornilov (14.) followed by Romashov (27.). Nice to mention is also that both Finnish jumpers reached the second round with Larinto as 24. And former Nordic combined athlete Asikainen as 26.

Let’s take a closer look at the circus: The top twenty is nicely mixed up with newcomers and experienced jumpers that we’ve seen in top form over a few seasons. It’s awesome to see that youngsters like Jaka Hvala and Andreas Wellinger can climb up so fast and be a serious rivalry. The top is really competitive and close together. But there’s also room for old-established athletes to improve- just like Noriaki Kasai and Sebastian Colloredo. “Collo”, who’s part of the World-Cup circus since February 2005 and constantly becomes Italy’s national champion since 2004 (which means 14titles already), can name the last winter season and also this year’s summer season one of his best ones. He improves step by step. A milestone for him has been the third place with his team mates in the first ever winter mixed-team competition two weeks ago. And that this is not only a one-hit-wonder, is clear after his ninth place today. It’s a good sign for a continuing updraft for the 25-year old. I’m sure we can look into a good –and in this way also better- future for Italian ski-jumping. The Italian ladies support this way up with their own amazing results in Sochi today. You can read about Evelyn Insam’s way to the top here soon!

• By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)