Austrian head coach Heinz Kuttin will travel to the World Cup opening in Klingenthal on Thursday with six athletes.

The team will be lead by the winner of the last 4-Hills-Tournament and the third of the overall World Cup of the 2014/15 season, Stefan Kraft. Michael Hayboeck, Gregor Schlierenzauer, Manuel Poppinger, Manuel Fettner and Andreas Kofler will also be competing in the Vogtland-Arena.

In the last three weeks the World Cup team, that was already named after the national championships in October, prepared itself for the long winter with two training camps in Oberstdorf and, recently, a week of training at the various training centers.

After the difficult start last year with a disappointing eighth place in the team competition in Klingenthal, Heinz Kuttin sees his athletes better prepared this year.

"The performances of the athletes on our team seem to be on a very similar level, here we definitely improved compared to last year. The last days were used to get the athletes in the right shape physically. Unlike other teams, we started last season without having jumped on snow before, we are a lot better positioned this year. Now we hope for a successful and trouble-free start of the World Cup winter."

Source: fis-ski.com