Campionatul Mondial De Sarituri Cu Schiurile Optiuni

[Aramis]

Pana acum au avut loc 5 etape:
- 2 in Finlanda, la Kusamo, ambele castigate de Janne Ahonen, campionul din sezonul 2003-2004
- 2 in Norvegia, la Trondheim, din nou, dublu invingator Ahonen
- 1 in Cehia la Harrachov, de data aceasta suprematia finlandezului fiind intrerupta de catre polonezul triplul campion mondial Adam Malysz.
Iata si cum se prezinta punctajul in acest moment:

1 AHONEN Janne FIN 480
2 JANDA Jakub CZE 248
3 HOELLWARTH Martin AUT 237
4 HAUTAMAEKI Matti FIN 221
5 LJOEKELSOEY Roar NOR 213
6 WIDHOELZL Andreas AUT 212
7 MORGENSTERN Thomas AUT 203
8 MALYSZ Adam POL 176
9 HERR Alexander GER 167
10 KASAI Noriaki JPN 151
11 SPAETH Georg GER 123
12 LOITZL Wolfgang AUT 111
13 UHRMANN Michael GER 95
14 BYSTOEL Lars NOR 92
15 MOELLINGER Michael SUI 76
16 DAMJAN Jernej SLO 76
17 AMMANN Simon SUI 75
18 ROMOEREN Bjoern Einar NOR 75
19 ITO Daiki JPN 59
20 MIYAHIRA Hideharu JPN 53
21 KUETTEL Andreas SUI 44
22 RITZERFELD Joerg GER 41
23 BENKOVIC Rok SLO 40
24 KIURU Tami FIN 34
25 HOCKE Stephan GER 29
26 GOLDBERGER Andreas AUT 28
27 STENSRUD Henning NOR 27
28 ZONTA Peter SLO 24
29 NEUMAYER Michael GER 22
30 PETERKA Primoz SLO 18

Va invit sa discutam aici despre arta de a "zbura" cu schiurile si despre performantele sportivilor nostri preferati.

[Aramis]

In etapa de la Willingen ,Germania, din week-end-ul trecut Janne Ahonen a demonstrat ca este cel mai bun! Dupa ce in prima serie de sarituri reusise doar a 6-a performanta (136 m), la cea de-a 2-a a sarit 152 m, doborand recordul trambulinei care era detinut de 4 ani de polonezul Adam Malisz.

One week on and Ahonen has not let up. Following the team event last night - won by Germany despite Alexander Herr's horrific accident - the World Cup leader was back to his winning ways.

Ahonen has now won eleven out of thirteen World Cup events this season, and like the Finns, I'm struggling to find the superlatives to describe his increasingly irrisistable domination of the sport.

On Sunday night Ahonen was back to his preferred starting position: last. As the overall standings leader the Finn has the luxury of watching the field jump first, before weighing up what would be necessary.

What was required in the first run was 139-metres, the target set by the impressive pint-sized man from Japan Daiki Ito.

Ahonen, however, failed to match Ito, and his 136-metres saw him into lowly sixth position where he was surrounded by an all-star cluster of crack-ski flying talent.

All was perfectly poised for a second round face-off, with the top six - featuring Hoellwarth, Kuettel, Urhmann, and Janda, as well as Ahonen and Ito - all within a handful of points.

However, Ito's buffer - a full two metres better than Hoellwarth in second - seemed to suggest that the Japanese man was ready to seal his first career World Cup victory.

But Ito would crack in the second round, only managing a weak 132.5-metres which would keep him back in sixth.

GREAT SPECTACLE

Maybe he was in awe of what he had just witnessed? I wouldn't blame him!

For Ito followed two huge jumps by Martin Hoellwarth and Andreas Kuettel, at 146.5-metres and 141-metres respectively.

With those classy affairs the Austrian and the Swiss had coasted into second and third.

But these efforts were dwarfish in comparison to what had happened only moments previously. Janne Ahonen, starting sixth from last, sped down the launch and set off at blistering pace.

His flight was delightful, second only to the sheer length of his leap: a staggering 152-metres, breaking Adam Malysz's course record by half a metre.

The landing slope at Willingen is helpfully covered with measurement lines, with a box-shape target for the competitors to aim for.

"To aim for" is rather an overstatement; it would be better to say "to aspire to", for rare do we see someone land their flight in this lofty zone, fit only for ski-jumping immortals.

Ito the Japanese jumper had reached the box in the first round, and a cluster of lesser men clipped the front edge of the box in the second round.

As for Ahonen's 152-metre effort... The Finn too failed to hit the box; that was merely because he left the target almost 15-metres in his wake!

The crowds went berserk, which is a huge statement considering we're talking about a highly partisan German following.

Everyone knew that they had witnessed history as Ahonen crushed the hill record, and left all the others in his quivering with apprehension, dumbstruck with awe.

The Finn thus won with 279.1 points, with Hoellwarth in second on 274.8 and Kuettel in third on 267.5.

In the overall standings, Ahonen leads convincingly on 1260 points (out of a possible 1300!) while Hoellwarth lies in second on 717 and Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic in third on 672.
(Eurosport.com)