Peter Prevc won the third individual competition of the 64st 4-Hills-Tournament in Innsbruck. With jumps on 128 m and 132 m and a total of 269.5 points, the Slovene took his second win during this season's 4-Hills Tour. The second and third place went to Severin Freund and Kenneth Gangnes.
"I'm really satisfied with my performance in today's competition. After the trial jump I was a bit nervous, but fortunately I was able to remain focused. I feel the pressure, everyone tells me that I'll win it, but before Bischofshofen nobody has won anything", Prevc said to the German TV station ZDF.
Freund keeps his cool after fall
Overall World Cup winner Severin Freund, who fell in the trial round and suffered bruises, came in clearly behind Prevc with 258.4 points despite strong jumps on 122.5 m and 128 m. He is now about 20 points behind in the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament before the final event in Bischofshofen. The World Champion said on ZDF: "Fortunately everything went really fast after the fall and so I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. All in all it was a great day. It would have been nice to jump as far as in the trial round again. Peter is one small step better right now. This is what makes this sport so interesting. I would need a miracle to close the gap to Peter in Bischofshofen, but all I can do is to keep on working. There will also be great and interesting competitions after the 4-Hills-Tournament. I just want to have another great competition again in Bischofshofen."
Head coach Werner Schuster added: "The fall of Severin in the trial round could have ended badly. After that he did a very good job. Currently there's one better jumper and this is Peter Prevc. If he continues like that we will be the first to congratulate him. Severin can be proud of himself. The rest day tomorrow will be good for everyone. I'm very satisfied with out team at the moment, they are all healthy and show good performances. It's the best 4-Hills-Tournament for us so far. I'm proud of the team, because everyone is doing a very good job despite the pressure."
Gangnes on the podium again
Kenneth Gangnes achieved his second podium result during this 4-Hills-Tournament in third with 126.5 m and 124 m and 251.5 points. The Norwegian said to ZDF: "I'm very satisfied with my performance, I didn't jump that well in the qualification yesterday. Peter Prevc is simply outstanding. He is really strong."
Johann Andre Forfang came in fourth, 1.8 points behind his teammate Gangnes with 122 m and 124 m.
Michael Hayboeck probably lost his chances to fight for the win in this 4-Hills-Tournament despite a good fifth place with 119 m and 123.5 m and 247.5 points. "You have to respect the performance of Peter Prevc. He is showing outstanding performances. You also have to congratulate Severin Freund, after his fall he did great and he still has a chance in the overall ranking. These two are in a really great shape right now", said Hayboeck's coach Heinz Kuttin.
German team outstanding
With Andreas Wellinger, sixth with 239.5 points, Andreas Wank (235.4 points) and Richard Freitag (233.3 points), the Germans achieved a great team result today. Freitag said afterwards: "In the first round I was a bit tense, it was a lot better in the final." Also the Japanese team had reason to celebrate with Noriaki Kasai (236.8 points) in seventh and Daiki Ito (235.8 points) in eighth. Defending 4-Hills champion Stefan Kraft closely missed the Top 10 and came in 11th. Anders Fannemel and Roman Koudelka followed in 12th and 13th.
Descombes celebrates
Vincent Descombes Sevoie already celebrated extensively after his first jump on 122.5 m, at the end the French came on a strong 14th place. Jan Matura was 15th and achieved another good result for the Czech team. Kamil Stoch is still not in his best shape yet, but he is getting more consistent and finished 16th. After two bad landings, Simon Ammann was 22nd, behind Lukas Hlava and Stephan Leyhe. Domen Prevc helped his big brother Peter to cover up the mediocre performance of the Slovenian team and finished 23rd. Ronan Lamy Chappuis scored a few World Cup points in 28th.
Prevc with good lead before final
After a once again great performance, Peter Prevc now leads the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament with a total of 842.1 points. He is now 19.7 points ahead of Severin Freund. Kenneth Gangnes is third with 800.2 points. Michael Hayboeck also still has a good chance to finish on the podium, he is only 1.2 points behind the Norwegian.
Peter Prevc also extended his lead in the overall World Cup with 824 points. Defending champion Freund follows with 639 points. Kenneth Gangnes is third with 550 points. In the Nation's Cup the German team leads with 1920 points, followed by Norway (1877 points) and Slovenia (1602 points).
After a day of rest on Monday, the qualification for the 4-Hills final in Bischofshofen will take place on Tuesday.
Source: fis-ski.com
