The final two ski jumping events of the FIS Grand Prix 2016 will take place in Hinzenbach (AUT) and Klingenthal (GER) this weekend. Of course the Austrian team is very much looking forward to competing in front of their home crowd and the athletes especially prepared themselves for the competition in Upper Austria on Saturday.

Recently they were training in a wind tunnel in Vienna, where they focused on working on various details. After that, the team of head coach Heinz Kuttin used the chance to have a final training session on the hill in Hinzenbach.

Obviously the local heroes of the club UVB Hinzenbach, Michael Hayboeck and Markus Schiffner, are especially motivated for the competition this weekend. "I'm really looking forward to our only home competition during this summer's Grand Prix series. It has some sort of a living-room atmosphere and for me as an athlete this is a very special experience. This year was the first time that I was part of the World Cup team for the full summer training period, this was a further improvement of the quality of training compared to the previous years. My goal is to implement this higher quality also on the hill", Markus Schiffner is quoted in a media release of the Austrian Ski Association.

Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayboeck hope that the recent training sessions will be an extra push for the weekend ahead. "With the day in the wind tunnel we had a special training. Maybe this brought us the last few percent necessary in order to achieve a podium result in Hinzenbach", said Hayboeck.

Stefan Kraft is already looking ahead to the winter: "This summer is coming to an end and with that the anticipation for the World Cup season rises. Now it's all about getting your equipment together and finding a positive feeling. Before the competitions we were also training in the EnergieAG-Arena so we can really have a home ground advantage there. Also the flights in the wind tunnel should have gotten us one more step closer to the perfect system in the air."

Heinz Kuttin is satisfied with the performances of his athletes in the competitions so far. "From a sporting point of view, we are pretty satisfied with the summer. In the first competition period our top athletes did a very good job. With Clemens Aigner and Markus Schiffner two new athletes could achieve Top 10 results. We already got some things going, but our work is far from over yet." 

Austria will be represented by 12 ski jumpers in Hinzenbach. Besides Hayboeck, Kraft and Schiffner, Manuel Fettner, Clemens Aigner, Philipp Aschenwald, Andreas Kofler, Clemens Leitner, Max Steiner, Ulrich Wohlgenannt, Janni Reisenauer and Daniel Huber will participate.

Source: fis-ski.com