Richard Freitag and Roman Koudelka are the big winners of this weekend in Engelberg

Richard Freitag and Roman Koudelka are the big winners of this weekend in Engelberg

Despite this mild weather and missing snow everywhere, Engelberg in Switzerland prepared a perfect hill for this weekend's World-Cup.

It all started with a nice qualification on Friday, won by Jernej Damjan. The Slovenian also showed on Saturday, that he's in a great form. With jumps of 131.5m and 135m he landed on rank three together with Michael Hayböck, who showed tries of 133.5m and 131m (276.2points). A strong Roman Koudelka has been third after the first round (128m) but could improve with 136.5m and got the second place (277.1points). But the deserved winner of this competition was 23-year old Richard Freitag, who celebrated his fourth World-Cup victory with 128.5m and 135.5m (277.7points). You can see the field of the best is always close together, this time there wasn't even one point between the podium places.

World-Cup leader Anders Fannemel didn't have a good day and finished on rank 21 (124.5/128m), while his colleagues got the places ten (Rune Velta), eleven (Phillip Sjoeen, who's back in the World-Cup after his bad fall in Klingenthal) and twelve (Johann André Forfang, COC winner and climbing new-blood of this season). Bardal was 15th, Tande got a single World-Cup point on rank 30.

Along with Hayböck, Stefan Kraft is one of the strongest athletes in the Austrian team. He finished the day on place six after showing the farthest jump of the competition (126.5/140m) behind Peter Prevc (132/133m). His teammate Thomas Diethart must be relieved because of getting the 17th rank.

The top ten was completed by Severin Freund (7th), Markus Eisenbichler (8th) and local hero Simon Ammann (9th).

Nice to mention is also the result of Nejc Dezman and German Stephan Leyhe. Both grabbed the 13th place. It was the first ever WC-competition for the 22-year old Leyhe from Willingen - and he already finished in top 15. Great job!

The competition today started with another qualification that was also won by Richard Freitag (135.5m; 143.7pts) ahead of Anze Lanisek (136.5m;138.3pts) and Johann André Forfang (137.5m; 138pts). Just as Markus Eisenbichler (4th) also Nejc Dezman (5th), Piotr Zyla (7th) and Stephan Leyhe (also 7th) presented themselves strong and made clear statements for the competition.

The outrun was a little slippery and so Dimitry Vassiliev and Ilmir Hazetdinov fell. Vassiliev was qualified due to the length ofhsi jump but obviously suffered from his fall and couldn't start. And not to forget: Kento Sakuyama, third of Friday's qualification was disqualified due to his ski length and therefore wasn't part of the following competition.

This time, Roman Koudelka was the clear winner with jumps of 135.5m and 138.5m (289.6pts). Simon Ammann, who was third after the first round could improve on homeland (134/136.5m) and changed places with second Michael Hayböck (135.5/134.5m). The latter is definitely ready for a victory. It's only a matter of time. Jernej Damjan jumped himself to the fourth rank (129.5/133m) from place 13 in the first round. Well done! Richard Freitag finished as fifth ahead of Markus Eisenbichler, who after several eighth places finally celebrated his best individual WC-result with rank six. Matjaz Pungertar continued his great form from Nizhny Tagil with the seventh place. Anders Fannemel, Stefan Kraft and Severin Freund jumped on the following ranks. Piotr Zyla, who brought a relieved sigh to Poland after grabbing place seven after the first round. But a rather weak jump in the final let him fall back (15th). Stephan Leyhe made clear that yesterday's performance wasn't a one-hit-wonder and finished as 22nd, while Lukas Hlava (27th) and Ronan Lamy-Chappuis (30th) finally got some World-Cup points as well.

Sad notices: Davide Bresadola and Jan Matura fell after their landing and were both out after the first round. But the most important thing: They are both ok.

That was the rehearsal for the upcoming Four Hills Tournament. We can officially name Roman Koudelka, Richard Freitag, Simon Ammann, Michael Hayböck and also Jernej Damjan favorites for the podiums. But also Anders Fannemel, Severin Freund and Gregor Schlierenzauer will attack. Who do you think will be a hot candidate for the 4HT? Let us know!

- By Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)

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