Kuusamo: New season, old master

The first competition of the new World Cup, which took place in Kuusamo, Finland, finished with an impressive victory of the defending World Cup champion, Janne Ahonen. Alexander Herr from Germany and Austria's Martin Hoellwarth completed the podium. Adam Malysz didn't manage to enter the top ten and finished 19.

Ahonen made a good use of the fact that he was performing at his 'home' hill and with a jump of 144,5 m from gate six of the launch, he already got a comfortable advantage over his compatriot Matti Hautamaeki. After the first round, Hoellwarth and Herr were placed third and fourth respectively.

Before the second round, the launch was moved down to gate five and many jumpers didn't even reach the distance of 100 metres in their second attempt. However, some competitors managed to improve their results from the second round: Michael Uhrmann and Thomas Morgenstern jumped respectively 128 and 133,5m. Also Alexander Herr, with a jump of 126,5 m was guaranteed a place on the podium when Martin Hoellwarth jumped a modest 123,5 metres. When Matti Hautamaeki also failed to beat the young German and slipped into 3rd place, it was only Janne Ahonen who could stop Herr to win the first competition of the season. But the Finn took everything in his stride, made an incredible effort of 142 metres and won the competition with 318.7 points, ahead of Alexander Herr who finished second on 275 points, with an advantage of only 1 point over Martin Hoellwarth.

When it comes to the performances made by ski jumpers from the Polish team, there's no denying that they were quite disappointing for the fans. Adam Malysz was the only Pole in the competition (other jumpers didn't get through the qualification round) and his jumps showed that his shape still doesn't allow him to fight for the podium. With the jumps of 123,5 in the first round and of 105 m in the second, he was placed 19.

VIDEOS:

Adam Malysz, 1st round, 123,5m...»

Adam Małysz, 2nd round, 105m...»

Janne Ahonen, 1st round, 144,5m...»

Janne Ahonen, 2nd round, 142m...»

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