Germany's Richard Freitag and Janne Ahonen of Finland
were not nominated by their coaches to participate
in the ski flying World Championships in Harrachov.Janne
Ahonen is not on the Finnish team of head coach
Pekka Niemelae for the Championships in the Czech
Republic because of a sickness due to which he already
missed the last World Cup competitions.
Ski flying debut for Klinga
On the basis of the recent results and internal
qualification criteria Niemelae decided to name
Anssi Koivuranta, Lauri Asikainen, Ville Larinto
and, surprisingly, also Sebastian Klinga on his
team for the upcoming World Championships.
The 21-year-old from Lahti, who was competing in
the World Cup three times this season, will take
part in a ski flying event for the first time in
Harrachov.
Six Germans to Harrachov
The German team of head coach Werner Schuster will
consist of the following six athletes: Severin Freund,
Andreas Wellinger, Andreas Wank, Marinus Kraus,
Michael Neumayer and Markus Eisenbichler. Richard
Freitag will not travel Harrachov and train at home
instead. "Right now Richard doesn't have enough
confidence in his technique to push the limit on
a ski flying hill", Schuster explains.
At the Championships Schuster hopes for a good team
result and thinks that his top athlete Severin Freund
is among the favorites there. "At the last
highlight this season we want to show the best possible
performance and be successful. With Severin Freund
we have an athlete who is, after his outstanding
performances recently, capable of fighting for the
title also in ski flying."