The last competition weekend before the Olympic
Games in Sochi is now officially opened and the
first to write down his name in the winner's list
is Japan's Yoshito Watabe. With a strong jump of
132.5 metres he accumulated 135 points and took
the win ahead of Austria's Wilhelm Denilf (130 m;
133 p.). The third rank went to Christoph Bieler
who jumped 130.5 metres (132.4 m).
Should the PCR have to be used in case of adverse
weather conditions, this would mean 8 second of
head start for Watabe on Denifl and 10 seconds on
Bieler. 21 seconds after Watabe, German superstar
Eric Frenzel will go out on the track who claimed
a fourth rank in the Provisional Round. Teammate
Tobias Haug followed on rank five, Thomas Kjelbotn,
Evgeniy Klimov, Tino Edelmann and Akito Watabe completed
the Top Ten.
As the PCR also acted as a qualification, 13 athletes
did not qualify for the Individual Gundersen competition
on Sunday. Among them were Samuel Guy, local hero
Janis Morweiser, Matic Plaznik, Norwegians Truls
Johansen, Ole Martin Storlien, Audun Hokholt and
Oeystein Granbu Lien as well as Poland's Szczepan
Kupcak and Mateusz Wantulok. German Philipp Blaurock
was disqualified.