Team Austria wins Super Team premiere
Two athletes per nation, three competition rounds, and Austria took the win in the end: The first-ever Super Team Event was held right before the men’s individual competition in Rasnov.
Manuel Fettner and Daniel Tschofenig took the win in this first Super Team competition in Ski Jumping history. The two Austrians came in ahead of the teams of Poland (Stefan Hula, Pawel Wasek) and Japan (Ren Nikaido, Reruhi Shimizu ).
“In the end, it was pretty simple: six good jumps and it worked with the win, we are both satisfied and it was really a lot of fun today. It was a bit more stressful than a normal team competition because there are only two guys on a team and everyone had to make three jumps. But on the other hand, it’s also really cool because if you are behind after the second round you still have to chance to close the gap and that makes it exciting”, said Daniel Tschofenig, for whom this was the first Grand Prix win of his career. Manuel Fettner claimed his maiden win just four weeks ago in Courchevel.
Pawel Wasek and Stefan Hula showed a convincing performance for Poland, they came in 13.6 points behind the Austrians after six jumps. The third place went to the team of Japan, with Reruhi Shimizu and Ren Nikaido. Norway, Switzerland, Slovenia, the USA, and Germany landed in places 4 – 8.
Today’s competition was just a first test: “I think it was an exciting test that we can now build on. We will analyze the competition in the coming days and also collect the feedback of the teams before we make a decision about the future of this format. Basically, I’m very satisfied with how the competition went today”, FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile explained.
The premiere of the Super Team Event was originally planned for Sunday, but due to a forecasted thunderstorm with strong winds on Sunday afternoon it was rescheduled to Saturday. The final competition in Rasnov is the mixed team event on Sunday morning.
The Grand Prix then continues in Hinzenbach (AUT) next weekend.
