Germany wins the first team competition in this season!

The strong team of Germany in the composition of Markus Eisenbichler, Richard Freitag, Andreas Wellinger and Severin Freund took the victory in today's men team competition in Klingenthal (HS 140).

The winners of the team competition (source: fis-ski.com)

The first team competition in this season was held on the Adler Arena in Klingenthal. From the organizers' side it was really well prepared. Even if in Europe the real winter didn't come yet, the hill looked great. The wind-net, which has been installed on the hill, passed the test and we hadn't problems with the weather conditions. Under these circumstances we expected a great and fair competition. And we weren't disappointed. We could observe a really long jumps and strong rivalry.

The competition began with the jumps of Anders Johnson, Federico Cecon, Ilmir Khazetdinov and Killian Peier, each athlete improved the result of his predecessor. Representative of the USA jumped 111,5 meter, Italian reached 113,5 m, representative of Russia gained 121 meters and the Swiss was the first who jumped behind the line of construction point with the result of 127 meters. We didn't have to wait for the first long jumps. Representative of Finland Jarkko Määttä reached 131,5 meter, and that was only the beginning of the really good performance of representatives of this country. Next on the start gate appeared experienced Czech Jakub Janda, who in great style reminded about himself. Janda jumped far like in his good old years - 133,5 meters and proved his good shape in this season. The first Japanese who represented this country was Reruhi Shimizu - young athlete is well-known from his risk appetite. This time he also went out on a limb and jumped 137 meters, but he had problems with landing and got lower marks for style than Czech. One of the favorites was Norway, which in the first group of the first round was represented by Rune Velta, who jumped well - 130,5 meter and gave his team strong entrance. Thanks to jump of Piotr Żyła, the runner-up of yesterday's qualification round, on 135 meters the Polish team took the lead, which they defended to the end of this group of jumps. The last three jumps of this group were also great - Jurij Tepes jumped 129 meters, Markus Eisenbichler jumped 131m and Stefan Kraft jumped 134 meters. Jump of the young German showed that the internal rivalry in the German team is strong and only the best athletes have a chance to jump in the main competitions.

The second group of the first round began with very weak jump of William Rhoads, who jumped only 109,5 meters. Fortunately his coach positively surprised representative of Italy Daniele Varesco, who jumped 125,5 meter. Totally satisfied weren't Denis Kornilov, who jumped 126 meters and Luca Egloff, who jumped 125 meters. Very good jump gave the second of the Finns Sami Niemi, who jumped 131,5 meter. Finns can be proud of their young athletes who clearly become the leaders of the team. Antonin Hajek didn't repeat good jump of his teammate Jakub Janda and gained 126,5 meters. Much better jump gave representative of Japan Daiki Ito, who jumped on 133,5 meter in great style. Coming back after an injury Anders Jacobsen gave also good jump on 129 meters. Representative of Poland Stefan Hula jumps good in Klingenthal - 126,5 meter - but it isn't the distance of his dreams. The same distance as Pole (126,5m) reached Robert Kranjec. Representative of the hosts Richard Freitag jumped very well and with the distance of 132 meters gave Germany the lead. The last who jumped in this group was experienced representative of Austria Andreas Kofler, who ruined his jump by reaching only 122,5 meters.

The third group of the first round began with jump of Nicholas Alexander, who gave the best jump among his compatriots - 124,5 meter. 124 meters reached representative of Italy Sebastian Colloredo. 20-year-old Russian Vladislav Boyarintsev gave a great jump on 130,5 meter. Gregor Deschwanden gave good jump on 127 meters, but by bad landing he got weak marks from judges. Anssi Koivuranta jumped 128 meters and joined his teammates in fight for a good place in this competition. Jan Matura gave great jump on 131,5 meter in good style. The olympic silver medalist from Sochi Noriaki Kasai jumped amazingly on 136,5 meter, proving, that despite his age he can still fight on the same level with younger jumpers. Anders Fannemel, who jumped next, reached 136 meters. Dawid Kubacki jumped only 121 meters, what deprived chances of Polish team to reach good place in this competition. The winner of this year's Summer Grand Prix Jernej Damjan jumped 128 meters and young Andreas Wellinger didn't disappoint his teammates by jumping in great style 133,5 meters. Completely different jump gave Michael Hayböck, who reached only 124 meters. This competition is definitely bad for the Austrians.

The last group of the first round began Nicholas Fairall, who jumped 121,5 meter. It isn't a discovery that USA haven't got jumpers which could fight for the top places with another jumpers. Experienced Davide Bresadola jumped as well as the rest of Italian team - 124 meters - and that gave his team 11th place. Mikhail Maksimochkin from Russia jumped well on 125,5 meter, but his team couldn't make to the final round finishing on 10th place. The festival of great and far jumps, which began later, beyond our wildest dreams. Simon Ammann jumped 143,5 meters, Lauri Asikainen jumped amazingly on 141 meters, Roman Koudelka on 141,5 meters, Taku Takeuchi 135 meters, Anders Bardal 133,5 meters. These jumpers proved that they are in a very good shape and they will be fighting for the top results in the individual competition. Unfortunately only 121,5 meter jumped Jan Ziobro, who replaced injured Kamil Stoch, and it seems that Poland won't take part in the final round. The next two jumps were much better - Peter Prevc jumped 129 meters and Severin Freund 130,5 meter. Gregor Schlierenzauer gave disappointing jump of 125 meters and Austria took the 8th place in the first round and with only 0,1 point ahead of Poland made it to the final round. The leader after all four groups of the first round was Japan ahead of Germany and Norway.

The final round began with jump of Killian Peier, who jumped 126 meters. However Jarkko Määttä gave a really amazing jump on 134 meters and proved that the Finns are back on track! Jakub Janda jumped 127,5 meters and Reruhi Shimizu 130 meters. Great jump gave Markus Eisenbichler, who jumped on 142 meters and gave his team 17,4-point advantage ahead of Japan.

First jumps of the second group were not that good as the jumps in the first one. Luca Egloff jumped only 118 meters, Sami Niemi 121 meters and Antonin Hajek 123,5 meter. All changed with the jump of Daiki Ito, who reached 135 meters. Anders Jacobsen jumper 127 meters and Robert Kranjec 128,5 meters. Another great result wrote on his account Richard Freitag who jumped 136,5 meters.

The third group of the final round began much better than the previous one. Gregor Deschwanden jumped 132,5 meters, Anssi Koivuranta jumped 132 meters, Jan Matura jumped on 128 meter and Noriaki Kasai jumped on 136 meter. Amazing jump on the distance of 144 meters gave Anders Fannemel. Jernej Damjan jumped on 134 meter and Andreas Wellinger approached his team to the final triumph with a jump of 139,5 meters. Michael Hayböck, who was closing this group, jumped 127 meters.

The last group, just as we have become accustomed, competed in a different order. Simon Ammann started it - and he did it well, landing on 136 meter. After the jump of Gregor Schlierenzauer (129,5 m), it turned out that the Swiss team finished ahead of Austria. Once again great jump gave Roman Koudelka, who gained 143 meters. Peter Prevc jumped 139 meters and gave his team 5th place. Surprisingly good performance of the Finns continued to the end Lauri Asikainen, who jumped 141,5 meters and his team took very good, fourth place. Soon the podium was sure for the Norwegians thanks to jump of Anders Bardal on 137 meter. Taku Takeuchi, who represented Japan in the last group, jumped 134,5 meters and gave his team the second place in this competition. However, the victory belonged to the Germany - Severin Freund jumped on 135 meters and could celebrate the victory with his teammates.

After today's team competition we can be sure that tomorrow's individual competition will be also filled with sport emotions on the highest level!

Once again - Glückwunsch an das deutsche Team!

By Anna Sobol (@AnneAZS)

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