Anders Bardal secures himself second victory in this year’s Summer-Grand-Prix

Anders Bardal secures himself second victory in this year’s Summer-Grand-Prix

22/09/2013 11:22

(Anders Bardal) SkiJumpingItaly 2013 - (c) Kathrin Müller

Almaty saw 49 jumpers going down the bakken in acceptable conditions. After his training jump, which was way longer than the hill record but didn't count as such as it was no official competition, Anders Bardal was the absolute favorite for fans and officials. And he didn’t disappoint them. With 131 and 135.5m, he was able to win this competition with an advantage of 12 points. Second has been Jernej Damjan, who jumped outstanding with 129.5 and 139.5m (251pts) ahead of Antonin Hajek (131.5/135m;247.6pts). The bigger the hill, the better the young Czech man, it seems. Let’s have a look at Jernej Damjan. The experienced Slovenian entered the SGP in Courchevel and became better with every competition until he won in Hakuba along with Noriaki Kasai. In Nizhny Tagil he went straight to the second place and now, the only one he failed to defeat is Anders Bardal.

20-year old Reruhi Shimizu finally found his summer form of last year again with finishing fourth (128/134m; 246.6pts). He missed the podium by one point.

Olli Muotka reaches his best performance ever in the SGP and became fifth (132.5/132m).

(Jernej Damjan) SkiJumpingItaly - (c) Kathrin Müller

The rest of the top ten consisted of Dimitry Vassiliev, who’s second competition in the SGP this was, Matjaz Pungertar and Maximilian Mechler, who was second best German behind Martin Schmitt in the first round and set himself to the meantime lead with 133m in the final. Place nine went to Andraz Pograjc. The Slovenian eagle was second best after the first round (136m) but couldn’t keep it in the final after 129.5m. Cestmir Kozisek completed the top ten. He is a silent athlete, who didn’t seem to raise much attention although he presented himself as a literally high-flyer in just one year. Last summer he started in the FIS-Cup, winning in Wisla, then podium in the Continental-Cup in Bischofshofen at the beginning of 2013. After that he came to the WC in Harrachov, where he became fourth in the qualification. Then he started for the team three times and they always reached the final round. Two times podium in the Continental-Cup and a podium in Hakuba during the Summer-Grand-Prix followed. Trust me, we’ll see more great results of him in the upcoming season!

Unlucky fellow of the day was Marco Grigoli. After an amazing first round (130m), he landed a 129.5m-jump but was one-sided and couldn’t stand it. As he fell, he held his left knee but walked away on his own. It seems like there was nothing seriously injured. He fell back to rank 30.

Nearly as unlucky was Rune Velta. Headcoach Alex Stöckl set him on a lower gate but the wind changed. This way, he couldn’t reach the 95% of the hillsize and got no plus points for the gate. This threw him back on the 30th place and nearly missed the final round. But that he comes to his form is clear since he set a 130.5m jump and gained 17places, which made him 13th in the end! That shows it’s a real gamble for the coaches to change the gate.

Nice to mention is that Martin Schmitt finished 14th, while US athlete Nicholas Alexander came in right behind him. Also he is one, who improves fast and I’m sure he’ll continue like this.

By the way: Jernej Damjan set the new hill record of 139.5m!

The next competition follows at 11:30 today!

• By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)