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Severin Freund takes the win in Courchevel
Severin Freund won the FIS Grand Prix in Courchevel. The overall World Cup winner, second last weekend in Hinterzarten, jumped on 132 m and 130.5 m and took the win with a total of 247.4 points. Japanese Kento Sakuyama and Peter Prevc finished second and third.
The World Champion said: "I don't really know why it's already going that well. I barely prepared myself for the Grand Prix, but so far it's working pretty well. It's always a bit difficult for me to jump in Hinterzarten, but it started to go well for me with the second jump in the competition there. It's nice to be among the best also in summer. The overall ranking is not important for me, because I'll skip many competitions. It's a bit bad that there are no more large hill competitions towards the end of the summer. I always considered the event in October very valuable before the winter."
Sakuyama surprises again
Sakuyama, who attracted some attention already with his third place in Hinterzarten, was in the lead after the longest jump of the day on 135 m in the first round. 129 m in the final earned the Japanese the second place with 245.8 points. He told later: "I changed a lot, also concerning the equipment and it seems that it is working really well. Last year I was jumping my first full World Cup season. This helped me to gain experience and I knew what I had to work on."
Peter Prevc continued his upward trend from Thursday's qualification, jumped on 133 m and 130.5 m and scored 236.0 points. The Slovene said: "I'm satisfied with both of my jumps, especially because I jumped only 108 m in the trial round. I'm happy that I could focus on the competition. In Einsiedeln I had good and bad results so far, when I'm jumping well I like this hill, otherwise I don't."
With Shohei Tochimoto another Japanese followed 5.1 points behind with 127 m and 127.5 m. Richard Freitag achieved his best result of the summer in fifth with 128.5 m and 129 m (229.9 points).
Strong Czech
Lukas Hlava, who won the qualification on Thursday, provided a success for the Czech team in sixth with 228.5 points, and so did Jakub Janda in eighth (222.9 points). Finland's Jarkko Maeaettae (224.2 points) was another positive surprise in seventh. Best Pole was Kamil Stoch (219.5 points) in ninth, his teammate Piotr Zyla followed behind Anders Fannemel (218.4 points) in eleventh.
Dawid Kubacki, the so far outstanding athlete of this summer, had some bad luck today. Right before the top athletes, the wind almost completed stopped. Kubacki came in only 27th. The Pole said: "Of course the conditions were bad in the first round, but I was also late at the take-off. Then I didn't have much time to get to the start again for the final and I couldn't really focus. But this happens."
It went even worse for Kenneth Gangnes. The Norwegian had no chance due to the bad conditions and was only 49th with 82.5 m.
Austrians not among the best
Markus Schiffner and Philipp Aschenwald were the best of the Austrian team in 13th and 14th. Michael Hayboeck and Thomas Diethart were already out after the first round. Best Swiss was once again Gregor Deschwanden in 19th, while Simon Ammann failed to qualify for the final round in 31st. Positive news for the French hosts: With Vincent Descombes Sevoie and Ronan Lamy Chappuis in 23rd and 26th, two French jumpers could score points.
Source:fis-ski.com
The World Champion said: "I don't really know why it's already going that well. I barely prepared myself for the Grand Prix, but so far it's working pretty well. It's always a bit difficult for me to jump in Hinterzarten, but it started to go well for me with the second jump in the competition there. It's nice to be among the best also in summer. The overall ranking is not important for me, because I'll skip many competitions. It's a bit bad that there are no more large hill competitions towards the end of the summer. I always considered the event in October very valuable before the winter."
Sakuyama surprises again
Sakuyama, who attracted some attention already with his third place in Hinterzarten, was in the lead after the longest jump of the day on 135 m in the first round. 129 m in the final earned the Japanese the second place with 245.8 points. He told later: "I changed a lot, also concerning the equipment and it seems that it is working really well. Last year I was jumping my first full World Cup season. This helped me to gain experience and I knew what I had to work on."
Peter Prevc continued his upward trend from Thursday's qualification, jumped on 133 m and 130.5 m and scored 236.0 points. The Slovene said: "I'm satisfied with both of my jumps, especially because I jumped only 108 m in the trial round. I'm happy that I could focus on the competition. In Einsiedeln I had good and bad results so far, when I'm jumping well I like this hill, otherwise I don't."
With Shohei Tochimoto another Japanese followed 5.1 points behind with 127 m and 127.5 m. Richard Freitag achieved his best result of the summer in fifth with 128.5 m and 129 m (229.9 points).
Strong Czech
Lukas Hlava, who won the qualification on Thursday, provided a success for the Czech team in sixth with 228.5 points, and so did Jakub Janda in eighth (222.9 points). Finland's Jarkko Maeaettae (224.2 points) was another positive surprise in seventh. Best Pole was Kamil Stoch (219.5 points) in ninth, his teammate Piotr Zyla followed behind Anders Fannemel (218.4 points) in eleventh.
Dawid Kubacki, the so far outstanding athlete of this summer, had some bad luck today. Right before the top athletes, the wind almost completed stopped. Kubacki came in only 27th. The Pole said: "Of course the conditions were bad in the first round, but I was also late at the take-off. Then I didn't have much time to get to the start again for the final and I couldn't really focus. But this happens."
It went even worse for Kenneth Gangnes. The Norwegian had no chance due to the bad conditions and was only 49th with 82.5 m.
Austrians not among the best
Markus Schiffner and Philipp Aschenwald were the best of the Austrian team in 13th and 14th. Michael Hayboeck and Thomas Diethart were already out after the first round. Best Swiss was once again Gregor Deschwanden in 19th, while Simon Ammann failed to qualify for the final round in 31st. Positive news for the French hosts: With Vincent Descombes Sevoie and Ronan Lamy Chappuis in 23rd and 26th, two French jumpers could score points.
Source:fis-ski.com
