The Austrian Nordic Combined national team returned to the jumping hills in the past week with a first training camp at the Summer Grand Prix Finals venue of Planica. From the past Tuesday until Sunday, the team went through an extensive jumping sessions in the morning and strength or roller ski sessions in the afternoon.

Jumping coach Christoph Bieler puts a lot of focus on basic work at the beginning: “We wanted to work on the individual mistakes and weaknesses of the athletes and use small hills for this. Difficult exercises like jumping in cross-country suits and short skis helped us to work on the technical basis of each athlete. During the last days, we went up on the bigger hills. The kick-off of the jumping season went very well, all athletes feel very well and fit.”

Veteran Willi Denifl: “The week was a lot of fun. We always start a little later with the jumping sessions and so I was really looking forward to it already. For me, it is especially important to get new impulses and freshen up and question old routines. On the jumping hills as in life, standing still means moving backwards.”

The last day of the camp ended with an internal training competition.Tomorrow, the team will head to Vienna to work in the Rail Tec wind tunnel.