COC-M: Simon Ammann adds COC win to his resume
Sep 15, 2019·Ski Jumping
After the first competition of the Continental Cup in Lillehammer on Saturday evening was decided after only one jump due to the strong wind, both rounds could be carried on Sunday, even if a bit earlier than originally planned due to the weather forecast.
Today's competition on the Lysgaardsbakken ended with a premiere: For the first time in his long, successful career, Simon Ammann stood on top of the podium in a COC. The 38-year-old four-time Olympic champion from Switzerland was already in the lead after the first round on the HS 140 with a 125.5 m jump and defend this top position with 121.5 m in the final and a total of 233.2 points.
"Maybe it was good for me that there was no trial round, so I didn't waste any energy. Being on the podium is always a great feeling and at age 38 I'm still as happy about it as I was at 21. Of course, I still have to improve my shape, we are still trying to find the right equipment for the bigger hills. At my age, it's always a difficult task to have strong legs and I really have to work hard in the next few months", said Ammann.
With 228.7 points (118.5 m and 124 m), Pius Paschke of Germany, who moved up from sixth after the first half of the competition with a strong second jump, claimed the second place today. "For me, it went much better than yesterday. The conditions were quite good, but it was a little bit tricky because we didn't jump that far. So it was not that much fun, but I'm quite satisfied with the second place", Paschke explained.
The third place went to Austria's Clemens Leitner with jumps of 118 m and 120.5 m and 223.6 points. With this performance, the 20-year-old Tyrolean secured his first-ever podium finish in the Continental Cup. "I am very satisfied with the result. I was a little bit late at the take-off in the first round, but I think the second jump was pretty good. Now I am looking forward to the next COC competitions in Stams and Klingenthal and hopefully, I will then have a good start into winter", said Clemens Aigner.
Rok Justin of Slovenia once again confirmed his constantly strong shape this summer in fourth, behind him, Poland's Aleksander Zniszczol was fifth and proved that his 46th place on Saturday was owed to the difficult weather conditions. Roman Trofimov of Russia was sixth, followed by the winner of the first event in Lillehammer, Poland's Klemens Muranka, in seventh.
The longest jump of the day was shown by Kevin Bickner with 130.5 m in the final round. With this great jump, the US American could move up from 21st at halftime to eighth overall. The Top 10 were completed by Andreas Granerud Buskum of Norway and Poland's Pawel Wasek.
Rok Justin leads the overall ranking of the COC after the two competitions in Lillehammer with 509 points, followed by Klemens Muranka (464 points) and Pius Paschke (326 points).
The Continental Cup continues next weekend with two competitions in Stams (AUT).
