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Norway wins team competition in Wisla
24 July 2016 года
Norway wins team competition in Wisla

The team of Norway (Johann Andre Forfang, Tom Hilde, Joachim Hauer and Anders Fannemel) won an extremely exciting competition, this summer's only team event, at the FIS GP in Wisla (POL).

At the end it was duel between Anders Fannemel and Peter Prevc, and before the final jump for each team, Slovenia had a lead of 0.2 points. But then Norway took the win, nine points ahead.

"It was really exciting today. Before my second jump I was just hoping that I can score more points than Peter. All my jumps here were really well so far and so I tried to do the same in the final round. Now I hope that can jump on the same level also in tomorrow's individual competition and fight for the win", said Anders Fannemel, who was the man of the day for the Norwegians and secured their first place with his jumps on 127 m and 134 m.

The Slovenes (Jurij Tepes, Robert Kranjec, Jaka Hvala and Peter Prevc) were also satisfied with their result. "We are definitely very satisfied with this second place. Right now we are not that strong, we always have some ups and downs, so this was a great result. Tomorrow I would be satisfied with a place in the Top 10, I'm still lacking the consistency in my jumps", Robert Kranjec, who jumped on 123.5 m and 133 m, summed up the competition for the Slovenian team.

The third place in this very close competition went to the team of Germany (Andreas Wank, Karl Geiger, Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger). "It was fun today, but I can still jump better. Some jumps are already pretty good, others are not. But it's only July, so there's still enough time until the winter. If I jump well tomorrow a lot is possible in the individual competition. I was seventh in Courchevel and I build on that. But in order to achieve a similar result I have to show good jumps", Andreas Wellinger explained after his team came in third, also due to a very good performance of Karl Geiger, who jumped on 124 m and 130.5 m. 

Team Austria (Manuel Poppinger, Clemens Aigner, Michael Hayboeck and Stefan Kraft) fought back to finish fourth, after the team was only second-to-last after Michael Hayboeck's really bad first jump. At the end this fourth place was a good result for the athletes of Heinz Kuttin.

A strong performance was shown by the team of head coach Richard Schallert in fifth. The team of the Czech Republic (Roman Koudelka, Viktor Polasek, Jakub Janda and Lukas Hlava) lead by an exremely strong Lukas Hlava, has to be reckoned with in the future.

The team of Poland (Klemens Muranka, Dawid Kubacki, Kamil Stoch and Maciej Kot) could not follow up on the successes of the past years in Wisla, when they won three times in a row. After Dawid Kubacki fell in the first round it was already clear that the team would not be able to finish on the podium. The local heroes of head coach Stefan Horngacher came in sixth.

Japan (Yumu Harada, Junshiro Kobayashi, Kento Sakuyama and Ryoyu Kobayashi) finished seventh, Switzerland was eighth.

The competition was held under summerlike temperatures with constantly changing wind conditions, that lead to various short breaks. "At this time of day it's always difficult, we knew that. We had some periods when the wind was too strong and out of the corridor, so short interruptions were necessary. That's why the competition took a bit longer than planned, but now we are satisfied with how the competition went today", said Borek Sedlak, who is the new assistant of race director Walter Hofer and responsible for the start lights.

Sedlak, who was responsible for the start process in the FIS Ladies' World Cup for the past two years, swapped positions with Miran Tepes after the past winter. The change of Sedlak and Tepes was initialized in order to avoid future conflicts. One of the athletes in the World Cup field is Jurij Tepes, the 27-year-old son of Miran Tepes.

Review: A planned assignment of Bozidar "Dare" Prevc, father of superstar Peter Prevc, as judge in Oslo lead to intense discussions before the World Cup on the Holmenkollen last winter. Contrary to the original planning, Bozidar Prevc was then not working as a judge in Oslo.

The second competition in Wisla, an individual event, will start on Saturday at 2:50 pm CET.

Source: fis-ski.com




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