Anders Fannemel took the win in the second World Cup competition in Titisee-Neustadt. The Norwegian also benefited of the disqualification of Severin Freund. The German was in the lead after the first round, but he was then disqualified due to too long skis. Kamil Stoch moved up to second with a very good final jump, the third place went to Roman Koudelka.

With 135.5 m and the longest jump of the day on 143.5 m, Fannemel presented himself in a top shape in the final large hill competition before the World Championships. 285.2 points earned him his second win in the World Cup, 10.4 points ahead of Kamil Stoch. Fannemel said later: “Yesterday I was struggling with the hill a bit, today I found my rhythm. We will be competing with a full team in Vikersund and I hope we can show some long jumps. I hope we will also be a strong team in Falun.”

Stoch fights back

Kamil Stoch, who was only tenth after the first round, could achieve his fourth podium result this season with 130 m and 137.5 m. The Pole said: “I like Titisee. Maybe because of the profile of the hill, maybe the atmosphere with many Polish fans. Last year I also jumped very well here. It was a good weekend for me, I'm happy about today's result. My next goal are the World Championships. Now I'll try to rest a bit and train and I hope that the competitions in Falun will be successful for the Polish team.”

Roman Koudelka scored 273.3 points with 131.5 m and 140.5 m. The Czech told: “I'm very satisfied. My first jump was not so good, the second one was a lot better and I'm happy that I could be on the podium. This is very important for me. I'll not go to Vikersund and train at home instead. I want to be in a good shape in Falun.”

Freund admits mistake

Severin Freund said about his disqualification: “I didn't use new, too long skis. I have been using them the whole season. I was simply 100 grams too light. This is annyoing. But it's also good that there are rules that leave no room open.” Daiki Ito missed the podium by only 0.5 points with his jumps on 135.5 m and 134 m. 4-Hills-Tournament winner Stefan Kraft, second after the first round, came in fifth with 133.5 m and 132 m. The sixth place went to Rune Velta with 270.4 points, followed by Peter Prevc with 269.8 points.

Freitag improved

Richard Freitag made amends for missing the final on Saturday and finished eighth with 266.1 points. Half a point behind, Michael Hayboeck came in ninth, his teammate Gregor Schlierenzauer followed in tenth. The two Japanese Noriaki Kasai and Taku Takeuchi finished 11th and 14th, Anders Jacobsen and Michael Neumayer were 12th and 13th. Markus Eisenbichler completed a good result for the German team in 15th.

Tepes misses final

While Jernej Damjan showed yet another consistent performance in 16th, his teammate Jurij Tepes was only 36th and surprisingly failed to qualify for the final round. The same fate was shared by Slovenia's Nejc Dezman and Robert Kranjec and Austrian Thomas Diethart. Gregor Deschwanden scored World Cup points in 20th, Dimitry Vassiliev finished 24th. It was a day of ups and downs for Finland. First Ville Larinto won the qualification, but later he could not qualify for the final round in 38th. The only Finn in the second round was Jarkko Maeaettae.

With now 1208 points, Stefan Kraft could extend his lead in the overall World Cup. He is now 58 points ahead of Peter Prevc. Roman Koudelka is now third with 1021 points, eight points ahead of Severin Freund. Michael Hayboeck is fifth with 944 points.

Next weekend a ski flying event will be held on the huge hill in Vikersund, before the first competition at the World Championships will take place two weeks from now