My personal view of this year NWSC 2013
- ski-jumping-italy
- Mar 6, 2013
- 4 min read
My personal view of this year NWSC 2013
06/03/2013 15:40
Fiemme 2013 my personal view:
Predazzo hills - Photo credits Consuelo Conte © Skijumpingitaly Fiemme 2013, those were the championships we all have been waiting for, some were more fortunate than others, some have came to this World Championships with their luggage of problems.
There was joy and disappointment (Norway), many things have made these Championships quite unique.
I was lucky enough to spend a few days there, optimal weather conditions, everyone was very taken by the event.
I personally have had this experience in a positive way, the first big event for Skijumpingitaly.
I loved being able to watch the mixed team race live, a competition that should have more stages in the next future, it is very interesting as the level that the girls bring into it, give other teams the chance to have a better balance and fight for a top spot, giving battle to the big ones even if they still considered the “small ones”.
The victory of Japan shall not be unexpected, my little opinion was that , they would have been one fo the favorites for that medal along with teams like Austria, Norway, and Germany.
Of course I was blown away by Italy, from which I would have expected more (podium result), but I think that the pressure – competing at home on a such big tournament is not easy- has played a mental factor as has already happened at the Olympics in Torino 2006.
Japan together with Slovenia, it was a pleasant surprise or rediscovery of a season that is about to end.
Pleasure and pain for Norway.
A.Bardal of Norway winner of the gold on the NH. Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly. After a well-deserved gold medal from the NH for Anders Bardal and bronze for Jacobsen from the LH, everybody would expect Norway ready to give battle in the last competition of the event, trying to win the gold medal at the World Championships. But as everybody already know, at the end there was an over-rule, where has seen the Norwegians, been ripped off by the silver that would have been or should have been theirs, but at the end ceded to Germany, leaving the Norwegians in the cold with a 4th place.
No too much personal pleasure for Gregor.
He was the athlete to beat at this championships, he is the most winning ski jumper in the history of this sport, but yet again like in Canada in 2010, Gregor has failed to win the individual competition on both normal and large hill. He had to wait the last competition to finally get a gold medal around his neck, and he wasn’t even the main figure on that day. In fact the star of the Austrian team was someone else, Manuel Fettner and it was rightly so, to understand why just click on the link below!
M.Fettner hero for the Austrians. Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly Manuel Fettner fantastic landing
Stoch made history like Malysz did 10 years before!
Is incredible to think that 10 years ago on the same competition and on the same venue, another polish printed his name on a competition that he made yours, that was the years where Adam Malysz was the champion to beat. Ten years on, another polish have printed his name on the same competition and the same venue. Kamil Stoch, made it sure that Predazzo is the right place for polish ski jumpers to give their very best. The 25 year old has won the gold medal on the LH, days before jumping on the podium again with the team, after they won the bronze at the team event together with Dawid Kubacki, Maciej Kot, and Piotr Zyla mdaglia won the bronze in the team competition.
But taken all these results there are also other things that impressed me, like the little – from my own point of view- understanding of the term “ belonging to the a team” by some, like no waiting for their team mates, or be interested one of them has managed to do. This belonging, or better being part of something I've seen it in a few teams, but I have noticed it the most and also appreciated it from Norway (which the sense of belonging to a team is very strong), also seen it by the Finns, which have struggled the whole season with all their problems , it was still there, seen it from Switzerland, Japan, Slovenia, Czech Republic to, but barely glimpsed, indeed not seen it by the Austrians.
In competitions like the World Championships, to be part of a team is like being part of a family, the only one family you know when you're away from home, Alex Pointner as a “team” only when they are on the podium, but from the outside they look like strangers inside their own house, and at the end of the day the athletes think as a single asset, rather than as part of a group. If I should give a vote to the races it would be a 10, the only thing I didn’t liked it, is that the first days I expected to see more people watching the competitions, but it wasn’t like that. Thankfully toward the end there has been a change in that too. My personal top moment was when I met former world champion Andreas Kuttel in a snack bar, and asked if it was possible to get a short interview with him, incredibly he said yes and after the qualification round I managed to ask him some questions.
A.Kuttel watching the official training in Predazzo. Photo credits Kathrin Müller © Skijumpingitaly Here you can listen the short interview to Kuttel, was my first ever live and I was really nervous! Short interview to Kuttel in Predazzo These championships will be hard to forget. Big thank you to everyone who was involved, I personally had a great time and won’t forget them any time soon! Consuelo Conte - @KokkaMufc
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