Dreams come true part 2 – World Championships in Val di Fiemme
The two-year long waiting came to the end and new ski jumping individual and team world champions ascended to the throne for another two years time. After a couple of weeks packed with exhilaration, tears, injuries, disappointments and surprises, Italian Val di Fiemme said goodbye to the athletes of the 2013 Nordic World Ski Championships. As always there were winners and… the less lucky ones. Let’s take a quick look at them.
PART TWO – TEAMS
AUSTRIA
Even though they did not bring any individual golds back to their country, they can consider these Championships as a success. Schlierenzauer’s silver, another silver in the first ever championships’ mixed-team competition, as well as a gold of the large hill event should make them very happy about the result. Surprisingly, the win on the large hill was this season’s Austrians’ first team victory. They managed to win the competition 14.1 points ahead of Germany and 14.9 points ahead of Poland, having Loitzl, Fettner, Morgenstern and Schlierenzauer in their team. “We kept our nerves, made not as many mistakes as the others and had the necessary luck,” Schlierenzauer summed the result up (link to the post in German). All guys delivered equally stable results and showed a real dedication. Fettner had a chance to present his gymnastic skills by finishing his jump on only one ski after the other one unfastened during the landing, while Morgenstern finished his second jump holding his knee with a wince of pain on his face. The injury forced him to take another break from sport after the championships.
GERMANY
The Germans proved their strong form and team spirit only in one of the team events. After winning this season’s first team competition in Kuusamo, being third in Willingen and climbing the podium of the individual competitions 11 times, they were expected to win more medals in Val di Fiemme. However, a bronze of the normal hill event is always something they can be proud of. The team consisting of Andreas Wank, Severin Freund, Michael Neumayer and Richard Freitag finished on the third place behind Austria and in front of Poland.
POLAND
The Poles can definitely assess their Championships’ performance as the best one ever. It was not only Kamil Stoch’s gold that contributed to their success, but also the bronze of the large hill event. Dawid Kubacki, Kamil Stoch, Maciej Kot and Piotr Zyla fought a close and fierce battle over the podium place with the likes of Austria, Germany and Norway. Their bronze created history, as it was the first ever Polish team medal of the world championships (their previous best result was the 4th place in Oslo 2011), but also aroused a wave of controversy over the ski jumping rules. The reason for that was the announcement of the podium places with Poland being on 4th and the followed change of results after the discovery of a mistake in points sum total. The jury after some protests filed by other teams had to revise the gate points, which resulted in point deduction for Norwegian Anders Bardal and in consequence change of podium places. All in all, a very happy ending for Poland but not so much for the Norwegian team.
JAPAN
Maybe they are not that strong as a team in the “only men” competitions but together with the girls they form a perfect relationship. The Japanese proved that the second place of the mixed-team event in Lillehammer this season was just a foretaste of what they can actually achieve in the future. During the competition in Italy Taku Takeuchi and Daiki ito together with Sara Takanashi and Yuki Ito definitely outdistanced their rivals Austrians by 24.3 points and Germans by 26.1 points. It was not only Japanese first team gold of the world championships but also a historic win in the first ever mixed-team event at such a big sporting event. So no one should wonder why the girls burst into tears of happiness after the final results were announced. “This was an amazing experience for me and we’re already looking forward to the next championships in Falun, Sweden in two years time,” said Daiki Ito in an interview (link to the video with German subtitles).
NORWAY
Alexander Stockl’s team is allowed to have some mixed feelings after the events in Italy. Two medals of the individual competitions for Anders Bardal (gold on a normal hill) and Anders Jacobsen (bronze on the large hill) can make them very happy about the achieved results. However, after three podiums in this season’s team events, including the second place in Willingen, the victory in Oberstdorf and the first place of the one and only mixed-team World Cup competition in Lillehammer, they could definitely expect some more medals. Unfortunately they only managed to finished 4th in both team competitions, losing the chance to stand on the podium by 3.7 and 15.6 points. The situation with changed results on the large hill made their day especially difficult.”This should not happen in a world championship but it did. I feel sorry for the boys but at the same time I am proud of beeing their coach. We look back on a very successfull WCS and forward to the next events in the World Cup.” that’s how their coach, Alexander Stockl, summed up the incident on his Facebook (link to his fan page).
SLOVENIA
Considering the fact that Slovenian guys presented a great form throughout the whole winter season in both team and individual competitions, these championships were they chance to shine. They grabbed the World Cup podium places of the individaul events five times. Also, they stand on the podium steps of all the team competitions being 3rd in Kuusamo and Oberstdorf and 1st in Zakopane and Willingen. However, during the most important event of this season they did not present what was expected from them as a team. Robert Kranjec, Jaka Hvala, Jurij Tepes and Peter Prevc ranked 6th in the team competition on the large hill and 8th during the mixed-team event – these are not the results which should satisfy them. The only man to secure podium places with his great jumps was Peter Prevc, who grabbed two medals of both individual competitions – silver on a large hill and bronze on a normal one, a well-deserved success.
FINNLAND
No one expected that the Finnish team is going to show such a miserable form throughout the whole season and the championships in Italy did not prove to be any different. Not only they did not stand on the podium or meddled in the fight over the first ten places, but none of them made it to the finals of the individual competitions. Their best jumper, Anssi Koivuranta, came in 45th and 39th after his come back to sport, while the team ended 11th on the large hill and did not take part in the team competition on a normal one. Julia Kykkaenen delivered the most outstanding performace for the Finns with her 10th place in the ladies competition.
