Team Norway unstoppable

The team Olympic champions from Norway are back on track after their short time-out last weekend in Lahti. Daniel Andre Tande, Andreas Stjernen, Johann Andre Forfang and Robert Johansson took showed an outstanding performance on Saturday and took an impressive win in Oslo with 1098.7 points. They came in almost 60 points ahead of the second-placed Polish team, Austria won the fight for the third place only 0.4 points ahead of Germany.

Only the battle for the third place was really exciting on Saturday, the team of Norway was just too dominant on the home hill in Oslo. All four Norwegians showed their best performances and on days like these, the gold medalists from PyeongChang are unbeatable. They scored a total of 1098.7 points, almost 60 points more than Poland (1039.8 points). It was a very good competition for Maciej Kot, Stefan Hula, Dawid Kubacki and the, once again, extremely strong Kamil Stoch and they finished almost 30 points ahead of the Austrians, but Stoch and Co. didn't have a chance to beat the Norwegians on Saturday in Oslo.

"This was a great performance of our entire team. Everyone jumped really well and then it's, of course, a lot of fun to win here on the Holmenkollen in front of our home crowd", said Robert Johansson. Kamil Stoch explained: "In the morning I woke up with a headache, but now I feel fine. My jumps were good and also my colleagues did a good job. It feels great to be a part of such s team. It was our 20th team podium in the World Cup, so we are writing history and I hope to write many more chapters."

The Austrians showed some real fighting spirit today and at the end, Gregor Schlierenzauer, Clemens Aigner, Michael Hayboeck and Stefan Kraft came in third, 0.4 points ahead of Germany. The team of head coach Heinz Kuttin scored a total of 1010.2 points. "It wasn't always easy for us this season, but everything you have to work hard for is that much more valuable. We improved our performance as a team today and we are on the right track", said Gregor Schlierenzauer. "We had to work hard for this luck. You can tell, that the team is moving closer together and there is new spirit now. It's nice for the whole team that it worked that well today, but when you see where Norway is right now, there's still a lot of room for improvement", said Heinz Kuttin.

The German team, with Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler, Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger, was fourth with 1009.8 points. In the end, a decision by head coach Werner Schuster was the decisive factor that the team missed the podium today. He moved down the gate for the second jump of Richard Freitag, who then landed already at 125 m and that was not enough for him to get the bonus points for the shorter inrun.

The team of Japan finished fifth, 2.1 points ahead of Slovenia. The Swiss team showed a good performance and came in seventh, Russia qualified for the final round of the best eight teams for the second time in a row.

The fight for the overall title of the RAW AIR seems to become a battle between Kamil Stoch and the Norwegians. Stoch currently leads with 428.8 points, ahead of Robert Johansson (421.3 points), Johann Andre Forfang (408.0 points) and Andreas Stjernen (404.7 points). Andreas Wellinger is the best German in sixth, Richard Freitag is eighth.

The individual event on the Holmenkollen in Oslo, with the competition jumps 4 and 5 of the 16 of the RAW AIR, follows on Sunday.