Austrians dominate Grand Prix ski jumping opener

Thomas Morgenstern of Austria claimed victory in the first individual competition at the FIS Grand Prix ski jumping held in Hinterzarten, Germany, on Sunday. Adam Malysz of Poland, the 2007 world champion and overall FIS World Cup winner, took second before some 5,000 enthusiastic spectators.
HINTERZARTEN, Germany — Thomas Morgenstern of Austria claimed victory in the first individual competition at the FIS Grand Prix ski jumping held in Hinterzarten, Germany, on Sunday. Adam Malysz of Poland, the 2007 world champion and overall FIS World Cup winner, took second before some 5,000 enthusiastic spectators.
    Austrian 17-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer, who had the longest leap in the first round, finished third. “The Manner Man of the Day,” the so-called best not prequalified jumper, was Jernej Damjan of Slovenia, who ranked eighth and won a mountain bike as a special prize.
    Team Austria, which dominated the team competition on Saturday, taking an unthreatened victory ahead of Teams Finland and Czech Republic, demonstrated its strength again on Sunday, as along with Morgenstern and Schlierenzauer, Andreas Kofler was fifth und Wolfgang Loitzl sixth.
    Morgenstern said, “I did not expect to win the first competition of the season. The leader’s yellow jersey is a first indication for the upcoming winter season. We have a good spirit in the team and are fully enjoying the summer and the Grand Prix in our team bus.”
    Happy with his performance, Malysz said, “It was a very nice competition. I am in good shape right now and looking forward to the rest of the Grand Prix. A personal highlight for me will be the competition in Zakopane in front of my local fans. Our team is also showing great progress — we now have three 17-year-olds and two 20-year olds, with me being the oldest. We have high goals for next season and personally I would like to do well at the Four Hills Tournament and at the FIS ski flying World Championships in Oberstdorf in February. They used to say that Malysz cannot fly, but I think I showed all the skeptics in Planica in March that I can!”
    Hermann Wehrle, president of the organizing committee, summarized, “I am very happy. Almost 11,000 attended the event in the course of the three days and we were able to enjoy great sport in ideal circumstances without accidents. This would not have been possible without the contribution of our many voluntary helpers. We would like to recognize their great efforts and thank them all for their wonderful engagement.”

—  Marcus Schick, FIS/OC Hinterzarten