Another season’s big event has started and it feels like a foretaste of forthcoming Sochi Winter Olympics. Some say the first two competitions of the 62nd Four Hills Tournament brought many surprises regarding the podium places. But is this really true? Let’s look at what happened.
Nobody will deny the fight over the medals in both Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen was fierce. Gold from Oberstdorf went to Swiss Simon Ammann, who enchanted the hill like the Olympic Harry Potter from eight or four years ago once again. With his jumps on 139m and 133m he took the lead by four points and his third place in Garmisch proved his good shape. He is currently 4th in the World Cup and 3rd in tournament’s classification with a good chance of still taking the first place. After four Olympic Golds, four World Championship medals, overall World Cup win and other titles the Four Hills trophy is the one he is still missing. Being in such a good shape he presents a threat to other athletes also for Olympics. Is he gonna take everything again?
After winning the qualification round in Oberstdorf Norwegian Anders Bardal took the 2nd place of the first Four Hills event. With his regular jumps on 133m and 133.5m he overtook Diethart and Prevc by 0.6 points. While his 13th place in Garmisch does not present the biggest stability yet, he is still in the mix over medals. He delivered his worst result in Garmisch, which were 129m in the first round. This is still not bad at all considering his current 5th place in Tournament’s classification. Having in mind his experience in big events, Gold in 2013 World Championships or overall World Cup win in 2011/2012 season, he is on a right track to a success.
3rd in Oberstdorf reaching 139.5m and 134m Peter Prevc continues to preserve his last season’s good shape. The 18th place in Garmisch does not show him in a favourable light, however, same as in Bardal’s situation, this was mostly due to his first competition jump on 128.5m. He was 5th and 4th in both qualification rounds and takes the 6th place in current tournament’s classification. Silver and Bronze medals holder of the last 2013 Fiemme World Championships and Slovenian 2013 Sportman of the Year stays in a good chance to take Four Hills podium place.
Turnament’s probably biggest surprise so far is Austrian Thomas Diethart, who started the event as slightly unknown to the wider public and became a new star suddenly overtaking the overall leader’s bib. He was 4th in qualification for Oberstdorf competition, 3rd during the event ex aequo with Prevc, then first in both qualification and competition rounds in Garmisch. His explosion of talent reminds of his countryman Gregor Schlierenzauer from when he started competing as a youngster a couple o years ago. With both jumps over 130m in Oberstdorf, both over 140m in Garmisch and winning this competition by 11 points he starts to prove his good places are not just a coincidence. So let’s keep an eye on him, especially during the next events in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen where he is going to jump in front of his home crowd.
5th in Oberstdorf and 2nd in Garmisch another Austrian Thomas Morgenstern started the Tournament in a top form. After his terrible crash in Titisee-Neustadt on 15th December 2013 his start in Four Hills or even Sochi Olympics was left with a question mark. However, Thomas showed his determination once again and having a broken finger, face in bruises and physio to help him to even put his shoes on he achieves great results. His father, who supports him so eagerly during the tournament, has got every right to have his eyes full of tears of joy over his next success.
FULL LISTS OF RESULTS FOR OBERSTDORF AND GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN
OTHER ATHLETES WORTH LOOKING AT
Old-timer Noriaki Kasai is an example of a sporting eternal youth. 41-year-old Japanese athlete took the 6th place in both Four Hills competitions, being also 2nd and 11th in both qualification rounds. With all his competition jumps over 130m line he presents a stable form at the moment. Even though his last World Cup win took place in 2004 in Salt Lake City, it looks like he is going to still meddle in the circle of favourites to the medals.
Gregor Schlierenzauer – some say ‘the one who was supposed to win’ but sport showes its unpredictable nature once again. The young and titled Austrian, who won the last two editions of the Four Hills, took 9th place in Oberstdorf and 8th in Garmisch. He delivers correct jumps but they lack a certain spark that is needed to lead. However, ranked 7th in the current classification he can still attack the podium places.
Kamil Stoch, another one of the favourites and World Cup leader, delivered an even weaker performance than Gregor. His 13th place in Oberstdorf and 7th in Garmisch rank him 9th in the overall Four Hills classification. Fortunately the situation of him going up by 15 places with a good second jump in Oberstdorf and good qualification positions, 6th and 1st, show he has not lost his form from the beginning of the season and remains World Cup yellow bib holder.
German old-timer Martin Schmitt chalked up this season’s first World Cup performances with 36th place in Oberstdorf, where he lost the KO round to his older colleague Noriaki Kasai and 27th in Garmisch, where he lost to Anssi Koivuranta but managed to go through to the second round as one of so-called lucky losers. Despite his weak results and withdrawal from the rest of the tournament, he considers his performance in front of the home crowd as a special experience. We will see if gossips about his retirement will become true this year.
Despite Stoch’s lack of success so far the whole Polish team should be recognized for its performance especially during the competition in Oberstdorf, where all the jumpers won their KO fights. At the end Kot finished 28th, Biegun 27th, Zyla 24th, Ziobro 17th, Stoch 13th and Muranka 14th with the longest jump of the day on 141.5m. Second competition did not bring as much success with Zyla not qualifying for the event and being exchanged for Dawid Kubacki for the Austrian part of the tournament, and the rest of the team ranking slightly lower. Still as a team they can be considered as one of the favourites for the rest of the season.
