The FIS Nordic Ski World Championships closed on Sunday

The FIS Nordic Ski World Championships closed on Sunday

06/03/2013 13:18

The FIS Nordic Ski World Championships closed on Sunday and it’s now time to refresh our memories and look back to what happened in the last two weeks.

A gold medal in the male team competition, two silver medals and a bronze is the Austrian loot.

Thomas Morgenstern, Manuel Fettner, Wolfgang Loitzl and Gregor Schlierenzauer won the last race, confirming Austria as the best team in the world.

Moreover, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger ended 3rd in the ladies individual competition, Gregor Schlierenzauer was 2nd in the male individual race and the two of them, together with Thomas Morgenstern and the young Chiara Hoelzl, finished again in second place in the mixed team competition. In general, a good transfer for the Austrians, even though no individual gold medals have been achieved.

United States won the gold medal in the ladies’ individual competition with a superb Sarah Hendrickson. It’s intresting to notice how USA have won all the female world titles which have taken place until now: the World Championships, in fact, had been opened to girls in 2011 and in that occasion the winner was Lindsey Van. This fact witnesses the great work made by the Italian Paolo Bernardi, former nordic combined athlete and coach of the US female team.

The WCs saw the definitive affirmation of Peter Prevc and Kamil Stoch on the top of the discipline. The Slovenian, who had never achieved a podium in the World Cup, won two individual medals (bronze on the NH and silver on the LH) and confirms himself as the leader of the Slovenian team.

The polish, instead, finally managed to make two good jumps in the same competition and won the gold medal on the LH.

Anders Bardal has taken Norway back on top of the World Championship, winning the NH competition. The last Norwegian world champion was Tommy Ingebrigtsen, who won in Thunder Bay in 1995.

Moreover, Anders Jacobsen won finished third in the individual LH comp.

Two of the delusions of the WCs are Tom Hilde, who had always jumped well in Predazzo but not that well in this occasion, and Anette Sagen, who hasn’t been able to do better than 7th place in the individual competition.

Germany is another delusion of the WCs, as no individual medals have been earned: Ulrike Graessler, Richard Freitag, Carina Vogt and Severin Freund won the silver medal in the mixed team comp, while Andreas Wank, Freund, Michael Neumeyer and Freitag closed in third place in the men team race.

A stunning performance brang the first Mixed Team gold medal to Japan. The team of Yuki Ito, Daiki Ito, Sara Takanashi and Taku Takeuchi did a gread second round and overtook Germany, who was leading, for the 1st position.

The 16 years old from Kamikawa also won the individual silver medal, finishing behind the winner Sarah Hendrickson by only 2.7 points.

Ito and Takeuchi showed impressive jumps during all the event, which witness their good shape.

Hard Times for Finland, who wasn’t able to reach the final round in the male team competition and closed 11th, followed only by Kazakhstan.

Positive results for Italy: Evelyn Insam and Elena Runggaldier ended 8th and 12th in the ladies individual competition, while Andrea Morassi, Sebastian Colloredo and an impressive Roberto Dellasega showed some really good jumps throughout the event.

Speaking about Italians, a special mention goes to Predazzo and all the volunteers, the staff and the people of Val di Fiemme: their hard work and their friendliness made this edition of the FIS Nordic Ski World Championship unforgettable.

Now the baton passes to Falun, Sweden, the venue of the 2015 World Championships.

Edoardo Vercellesi (Twitter: @edoverce97)