Schlierenzauer dominates the qualification in Innsbruck ahead of Anders Jacobsen - three Polish jump

Schlierenzauer dominates the qualification in Innsbruck ahead of Anders Jacobsen - three Polish jumpers in top five!

03/01/2013 20:06

The place of the best of the Four-Hills-Tournament is still hotly contested! Today it was a small advantage in favor for Gregor Schlierenzauer- but tomorrow could be the day of Anders Jacobsen, who becam second today, again. Schlierenzauer used his even rather bad wind conditions and landed a 123.5m- jump (125.8points), while Jacobsen's wind was a little bit better and brought him 125.5m (123.6points). He shared the second rank with Kamil Stoch and his teammate Maciej Kot. Both showed 125m. Krzysztof Mietus, who was leading the qualification for a long while, followed with 121.5points. His jump of 126m, which also was the best length in the qualification, was made possible because of good upwind.

Also Peter Prevc can be satisfied with his performance today. 124m (120.9points) brought him the sixth rank. His brother Cene Prevc unfortunately didn't manage the qualification. He's in the team for Jurij Tepes, who was sent home because of his loss of form. Richard Freitag (124m; 118.6points) also seems to improve after he was set for the rest of the Tournament by German head coach Werner Schuster. He shared the seventh place along with Norwegian Tom Hilde (124.5m). The latter is jumping a new invention of the Norwegians: A ski shoe with a thicker sole and harder shoe tongue. Regarding to him, this is giving him and Anders Jacobsen, who's competing with the same redevelopment, a better feeling but still leaves some problems at the landing for Hilde.

Out of Austria's national group David Unterberger, Lukas Müller and Stefan Kraft made it into the competition. Gregor Schlierenzauer will be the rival of Unterberger, while Kraft has to compete against Matjaz Pungertar. Lukas Müller on the other hand will meet Anders Jacobsen.

Simon Ammann (123.5m; 117.3points) and Anders Bardal (121.5m; 115.3points) completed the top ten. This brings Ammann a rather easy opponent, who will be Daiki Ito. There are others, who will have a harder time: Martin Schmitt for example, who will jump against Vladimir Zografski. But the experienced German, who won the last COC before the Tournament, is eager to show his best and to win this duel also.

Also Andreas Wellinger, Germany's surprise hero, is ready to fight. His rival will be Thomas Morgenstern. You might say, it's not so grave as the loser most likely will be a lucky loser but as seen in Oberstdorf by Morgenstern and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen by Ammann, this isn't automatically the case. However, also the duel Andreas Wank and Anders Bardal will be most interesting. Wank, who also got the permission to continue the Tournament (instead of Danny Queck and Maximilian Mechler) has urgently to prove, that this desicion was right.

A hardly predictable pair is Anders Fannemel and Rune Velta. Also Andreas Kofler against Dimitry Vassiliev will be very unsettling to watch. It seems like it's bad luck for the Austrian to be rather weak in qualifications and to get a strong competitor in this way.

Lukas Hlava, who fell during the New-Year's-Jumping, will meet Jaka Hvala in tomorrow's competition on the Bergisel-jumping and Manuel Fettner has to jump in a duel with Robert Kranjec.

So as always, you can be really excited about the competition tomorrow that will start at 13.45!

Our photographer Kathrin Müller will be there to take amazing pictures for you and your editor- team Consuelo Conte and Peggy Kierstan will report in detail!

• by Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)