Gregor Schlierenzauer, Thomas Diethart, Stefan Kraft, Michael Hayboeck - FIS
Austria won the team competition on the large hill in Lahti. With a total of 973.5 points Thomas Diethart, Stefan Kraft, Michael Hayboeck and Gregor Schlierenzauer came in clearly ahead of Germany and Norway.
"The competition was on a very high level and it was not easy due to the wind conditions. You needed eight perfect jumps and that's why we are very happy that we could win", said Michael Hayboeck. The best athlete of the Austrian team was Stefan Kraft, who showed impressive jumps on 125 m and 127.5 m.
German team with strong comeback
The German team with Marinus Kraus, Andreas Wellinger, Andreas Wank and Severin Freund ahd a bad start and was only fifth after the first round. With an impressive performance in the final they scored a total of 960.8 points. Once again they could rely on Severin Freund, who is currently in an outstanding shape and jumped on 130.5 m and 127.5 m. "The competition didn't start well for us. We had bad wind conditions and the jumps were not good either so the first round was difficult for us. We won the second round 23 points ahead of Austria, this shows that everything is possible", said Andreas Wellinger.
Like the Norwegians, Rune Velta, Anders Fannemel, Andreas Stjernen and Anders Bardal, the Germans also benefited from a bad final jump of Peter Prevc. The bronze and silver medalist of the Olympics lost the second place for his team. Prevc, Jernej Damjan, Jurij Tepes and Nejc Dezman finished fourth with 951.3 points, 8.7 points behind Norway. Andreas Stjernen was definitely satisfied with the competition: "I'm very happy, this was my first podium this year. Seven of our eight jumps were good, but this was not enough to win. The atmosphere was really good today, you could hear the crowd at the top of the hill."
Finns strong thanks to Koivuranta
The Finnish team provided a positive surprise. Lauri Asikainen, Ville Larinto, Janne Ahonen and Anssi Koivuranta came in on a good fifth place with 938.8 points. Outstanding was the performance of Koivuranta, who was among the best today with his jumps on 125 m and 131 m.
Disappointing result for Poland
Like already in Friday's individual competition the Polish jumpers didn't do well on the hill for the WSC 2017 and finished on a disappointing seventh place, behind the Czech Republic (925.5 points) with only 886.7 points. Without the injured Daiki Ito and Noriaki Kasai the Japanese team, that won bronze in Sochi, was only eighth. Russia and Kazakhstan failed to qualify for the final round.
