Richard Freitag takes the victory in Innsbruck!

Representative of Germany Richard Freitag won in the thid competition of 63. Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck. After 13 years the hill record of Sven Hannawald was broken.

(Richard Freitag, photo: Kathrin Müller, SkiJumpingItaly)

23-year-old ski jumper from Erlabrunn with jumps of 133,5 and 132 meters took his 5th victory in the World Cup competition.

“This is very good for us Germans and for myself. I saw what Kraft showed in the first round, then I had to remain calm.” - said Freitag afterwards. - "I was not aware of the historic aspect. It was unbelievable. The feeling you have when you stand down in that stadium in front of this huge crowd is incredible. I was satisfied with my jump, everything worked well. When it was confirmed that I won it was an emotional explosion. It was fun. The footsteps of Sven Hannawald are still way too big for me. I tried to do my best. But it's an honor to be compared to him. Tomorrow I would like to read: “YEAH! Amazing atmosphere in the stadium in Innsbruck.” Bischofshofen will be a challenge for me. It's a great hill, but it's not easy to jump there.”

Second place in this competition took Stefan Kraft which strengthened his leadership in the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament and set new hill record which is located now on 137 meter.

“This is an awesome day, almost as great as in Oberstdorf. I haven't won the 4-Hills-Tournament yet, we will see that in the evening of January 6th.” - Kraft said - "It is one of the best second place you can wish for. I extended the lead in the overall ranking, was second in a World Cup and all that at home. It's awesome. It's never easy on the Bergisel, the atmosphere is amazing. But it's also good being nervous. I'm really looking forward to Bischofshofen, many fans will be there.”

On the third place were ranked ex aequo two legens of ski jumping - Simon Ammann and Noriaki Kasai. Ammann jumped 132 m and 130.5 m, while Kasai landed at 128.5 m and 132 m, but they scored the same points note.

“I can really live with this third place. Noriaki is a real gentleman. He jumped after me when we shared the win in Ruka and today and he knows exactly what to do so I'm satisfied as well. For it's important that I was rewarded today. I was jumping aggressively. The first jump could have been better but if you attack in the final and end up on the podium it's a great reward. The result is okay, I was really happy that I shared the third place with Noriaki.” - said Ammann.

“I'm in a relatively good shape at this 4-HIlls-Tournament. I started well and I actually wanted to win today because it is the birthday of my late mother. I will try to do that in Bischofshofen now.” - said Kasai.

Just behind the podium the competition finished Gregor Schlierenzauer, who jumped 127 and 129,5 meters. Sixth was the World Cup leader, Michael Hayboeck, which jumped 125 meters in the first round, but in the second one he jumped on 138 meters, which is result one meter better than the new hill record, but Austrian propped his jump. Seventh was Kamil Stoch, who jumped 127 and 130 meters. In the Top 10 were also Severin Freund (131 and 126,5m), Anders Jacobsen (133,5 and 124m) and Roman Koudelka (124 and 125,5m). Only 11th place took Peter Prevc, with jumps of 123 and 133 meters.

Stefan Kraft secured the leadership in the Tournament with a total of 835.4 points, 23.1 points behind him is his teammate Michael Hayboeck. Peter Prevc follows 6.3 points behind Hayboeck, Noriaki Kasai is now fourth with 797.7 points, Richard Freitag thanks to today's victory is now fifth with 791.7 points.

By Anna Sobol Quotes: FIS

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