Polish domination in Predazzo

Polish domination in Predazzo

18/12/2013 22:02

The Polish army strikes again, with Alexander Zniszczol, Bartolomiej Klusek and Krysztof Biegun gaining the gold medal in the team competition of the Universiades.

There has been no quest for the gold: the red-and-white team took the lead after the firts jump and conserved it until the end. The final standing sees Russia 27.8 points behind, with great jumps from Mikhail Maksimochkin (who earns the third medal in three races), a decent Aleksander Sardyko and Roman-Sergieevich Trofimov. Surprisingly, the bronze medal goes to Austria (Huber-Unterberger-Aigner), half a point ahead of Japan (Harada-Hosoda-Kobayashi), one of the favourite teams.

Slovenia fell two places down in the last leg due to a "foggy" performance from Mitja Meznar which follows good jumps from Miran Zupancic and Gasper Bartol. Sixth place for Finland (Herola, Valta and a very in-shape Sami Niemi), followed by a non-competitive Germany and Ukraine.

Russia wins, Finland back on top:

Last years have been hard for Finland, but finally the Scandinavian country is back on the podium. Sami Niemi and Julia Kykkänen took second place in Tuesday's mixed team competition of the Universiades on the normal hill of Predazzo behind Russia, probably the favourite team.

Irina Avvakoumova and Mikhail Maksimochkin earned the gold without winning any of the four legs of the competition. Kykkänen-Niemi came before Katja

Pozun and Mitja Meznar, who led Slovenia to the bronze.

Italy ends ninth with Lisa Demetz and Alessio De Crignis entering the competition.

Final standings: 1. AVVAKUMOVA Irina - MAKSIMOCHKIN Mikhail [RUS] 508.1

2. KYKKÄNEN Julia - NIEMI Sami [FIN] 505.1

3. POZUN Katja - MEZNAR Mitja [SLO] 500.6

4. DOLEZELOVA Michaela - KOZISEK Cestmir [CZE] 488.9

5. IWABUCHI Kaori - KOBAYASHI Junshiro [JPN] 488.7

6. LOGAR Eva - ZUPANCIC Miran [SLO] 487.5

7. FAIßT Melanie - BOGNER Tobias [GER] 473.7

8. GLADYSHEVA Anastasiya - SARDYKO Aleksandr [RUS] 447.7

9. DEMETZ Lisa - DE CRIGNIS Alessio [ITA] 446.0

10. MATSUHASHI Aki - HARADA Yumu [JPN] 432.0