Peter Prevc won the New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the second leg of the 64th 4-Hills-Tournament the Slovene took a clear win, ahead of Kenneth Gangnes and Severin Freund, with jumps on 133.5 m and 136 m and a total of 272.7 points. With this result, Prevc now also took the lead in the 4-Hills overall ranking.

Prevc said afterwards: "This was one of the best competitions of my career. I'm very happy that I could show such good jumps here. The day went great for me and I'm very satisfied with the level of my jumps. If it goes that well, then jumping is really fun and you can be very relaxed. The atmosphere was great again. At each stage there are more and more Slovenian flags." 

Fourth podium for Gangnes

Kenneth Gangnes came in second and achieved already his fourth podium result this season with 132 m and 134 m and 260.1 points. The Norwegian said: "It's great to be a part of the team and to be on the podium here is amazing. My jumps were getting better and better since yesterday and I hope that i can continue jumping on this level."

Freund not in his best shape yet 

Severin Freund, who won the 4-Hills opener in Oberstdorf, stood on the podium of the New Year's competition for the first time in his career with 133.5 m and 132.5 m and 256.8 points. The overall World Cup winner said: "I'm very satisfied with the result. It's not a surprise, that Peter is still showing very stable jumps. I you make small mistakes, like I did in the second round today, you can quickly lose a few points. All in all I'm in a good shape earlier in the season, than last year but I'm still not yet jumping on the same level as in Falun last winter. You can't force it. Peter is a bit ahead in this process, his jumps are more consistent. But I'm still confident for the next two competitions."

Forfang among the best

Johann Andre Forfang finished on a very good fourth place with his jumps on 128 m and 133.5 m and 250.8 points. Michael Hayboeck, second in Oberstdorf, was fifth with 131 m and 132 m and 247.3 points and can still fight for the overall win. Hayboeck said: "After the first round I was not completely satisfied. I noticed that more would have been possible. The second jump was my best here, a clear improvement. In training I lost about 20 points to Peter most of the time, today I was that far behind after two jumps. I can live with that. It's hard for me to jump on this hill so I'm really looking forward to the home hills now." Richard Freitag was sixth with 243.6 points, 2.1 points behind, Anders Fannemel was the third Norwegian in the Top 10.

Koudelka in the Top 10

Roman Koudelka achieved a good result for the Czech team in eighth with 241.0 points, Stefan Kraft probably lost his chance to defend the overall title with a ninth place (238.6 points). The Austrian told later: "Unfortunately the first jump was a bit too aggressive. The second one felt good. I don't know yet why I could move up more. All in all I showed two solid performances, but I probably won't win the 4-Hills-Tournament this time." Daiki Ito was the best of the Japanese team in tenth with 234.0 points.

Strong German team

The Germans once again showed a very good team performance. Besides Freund and Freitag, also Andreas Wank, Andreas Wellinger and Stephan Leyhe did well and finished 11th, 14th and 17th. Andreas Wellinger said: "I started the new year with better jumps, than I ended the last year with. Now I want to follow up on this in Innsbruck. It was a clear improvement today and I want to continue like that." 19-year-old David Siegel came in on a very good 16th place in his first World Cup competition. Siegel was happy: "It was a great feeling. I really enjoyed the competition and the atmosphere and it gave me a lot of motivation. I can also learn a lot about the technique from athletes like Severin Freund or Peter Prevc."

Kasai and Ammann lose ground

The two veterans Noriaki Kasai and Simon Ammann were 12th and 13th and won't be able to fight for a top result in the overall ranking. Ammann said: "Both of my jumps weren't perfect and there was slight tail wind that makes it more difficult in the air. I have to fight right now and can't achieve top results right away, things have to develop slowly. The best jumpers are ten meters ahead of me, with the landing this adds up to 20 points." Andreas Stjernen completed the strong result for the Norwegians in 15th.

Stoch and Schlierenzauer more stable

Kamil Stoch showed a bit of a positive trend and tied for 19th with Vincent Descombes Sevoie. Gregor Schlierenzauer, who failed to qualify for the final in Oberstdorf, finished 21st today. The record World Cup winner told: "The great thing about our sport is that it's easy and simple when it works, bhen it doesn't work it's a lot harder." Lukas Hlava, Jakub Janda and Jan Matura came in 25th, 27th and 28th and provided a good team result for the Czech Republic. On the other hand, the new year didn't start that well for Slovenian veteran Robert Kranjec, Japanese Taku Takeuchi, Joachim Hauer and Manuel Poppinger, who failed to make the cut for the final round. The Tour of disappointments continued for Jurij Tepes, who was disqualified in the first round.

Prevc with half-time lead

After two of the four competitions, Peter Prevc leads the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament with a total of 572.6 points, Severin Freund follows 8.6 points behind. Michael Hayboeck is already a few meters behind the top now with 551.5 points. The two Norwegians Kenneth Gangnes (548.7 points) and Anders Fannemel (537.3 points) follow in fourth and fifth.

The 4-Hills-Tournament continues already on Saturday with the qualification for the competition in Innsbruck.

Source: fis-ski.com