Jan Matura continues his show in Sapporo with the second victory!

Jan Matura continues his show in Sapporo with the second victory!

20/01/2013 18:14

It is an amazing time for the experienced Czech: 32-year old Jan Matura, who’s getting better and better since the Four-Hills-Tournament in Bischofshofen finally crowned his great form with two WC victories in a row- both in Sapporo, Japan and both being the first time ever for him, to be on the highest place on the podium in a World Cup! Huge congrats to him for such an awesome success! (132.5/133m; 247.0points) Second has been finally strong again Robert Kranjec (131/134m; 245.7points) ahead of Andreas Wank (135/136m; 241.0points). They braved the conditions and showed the farthest jump in that difficult competition as did Tom Hilde, who landed on place four with jumps of 126.5 (from a lower gate) and 134.5m (237.7points). If you ask me, we’ve seen a lot of four/five/six-placed Hilde- he is definitely ready for the podium! But this time it was Jan Matura’s turn.

He improved a lot seen already last summer, when he hit the Continental Cup with five podium places. He developed to a serious competitor for the strong Norwegian team and Austrian’s best jumpers. The latter are missing Gregor Schlierenzauer, who’s getting healthy at home, and could only place Wolfgang Loitzl in the top ten on rank eight (129/123.5m; 220.7points).

Also team Poland had only one athlete among the best ten jumpers after the second round (although Kubacki and Kot have been about there in the first round): Kamil Stoch on the fifth place (133/127.5m; 228.6points). He outnumbered Jurij Tepeš (223.6points; 6th) and his teammate Peter Prevc (219.7; 9th). Host Japan only placed Taku Takeuchi, who’s finally warmed up for the season, in the list of the best. He finished on the seventh place (220.9points), while Daiki Ito fell of the bakken because of a slip-up. He could stop just before the table and was held by helpers. This is really sad for the successful Japanese, who had big problems adjusting himself to the new suit after his knee problems. We hope, he can just scratch that and repeat his great jump of 130.5m, which put him on the second place after the first round, in the next competition again! The whole national group fell out after the first round, which means, that the oldest active athlete Takanobu Okabe also missed the final as did Anders Jacobsen, Maximilian Mechler, Roman Koudelka and Severin Freund. But don’t think they just haven’t been good enough. In fact, the weather has been difficult with changing wind conditions and strong gusts. Also the landing area was a bit tricky with fresh and soft snow. It appeared to be comparable with the outrun status in Wisla. Especially this makes the top three the deserved winners of today! Bad luck on the other hand had Gregor Deschwanden. The shy Swiss man, who was third after the first round, was only able to show 108m with his second try and fell back on the 16th place. Anyway, he now knows, what he’s capable of.

It was a nice day for Germany with Andreas Wank being on the podium again. When we look back, he struggled a lot during the first period of this season and also during the Tournament, when he has been in the second round only twice. All in all he has been in the top ten once this winter (Sochi; beginning of December). But let’s also mention Martin Schmitt, who finished this competition on place ten! He improved by three places with his 130.5m- jump in second round.

Plus Atle Pedersen Rønsen gained his first WC points this season. And also Peter Frenette seems to like Sapporo very much! He was able to improve from a 25th place to rank 20 today! Thumbs up for this!

All the guys will get their next chance to keep their level or even improve in Vikersund, where the first ski-flying competition of this season will take place next weekend!

• By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)