Ahonen scores second Four Hills win amid controversy; Manninen takes third in Combined sprint

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Ski-jumper Janne Ahonen moved another step closer to a clean sweep of the Four Hills Tournament by winning the second round of the competition at Garmisch-Partenkirchen on New Year’s Day.
      There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ahonen had the two longest leaps of the competition, as so often before this season - when he has won all but one of the FIS events - but his second jump is still causing debate.
      Ahonen flew 128 metres - only one metre short of the hill record. This practically brought him down on the flat, and he had trouble standing up. Many took the view that he squatted so low on landing that his rear end was dragging along the ground, but the judges did not penalise him, at least not as much as they might have. Others have argued that Ahonen’s buttocks hit solid ground only after he had safely crossed the critical line as far as judging is concerned, and there were those who decried the whole controversy as jealousy at a time when the Finn is clearly in a different league from his opponents.
     
The leniency or otherwise of the five judges meant that Ahonen triumphed over Austria’s Thomas Morgenstern by 6 points, with Georg Späth of Germany a further 6.5 points back in 3rd.
      Ahonen in fact would only have needed to jump around 120 metres with a reasonable landing to ensure his win, but when you are in the shape he is in, such things are simply not going to happen.
      Ahonen’s win extends his already massive lead in the FIS World Cup standings, puts him nearly 36 points ahead of Morgenstern in the Four Hills Tournament, and keeps alive the chance that he could emulate Sven Hannawald’s unique feat of a clean sweep in this traditional New Year’s event. The next round will be in Innsbruck, followed by the closing competition in Bischofshofen. Ominously for the opposition, both these hills are among Ahonen’s favourites.
     
On Sunday, Hannu Manninen’s skiing abilities pulled him up to 3rd place in the Nordic Combined sprint event at Ruhpolding in Germany.
      He could only manage 21st place on the ski-jumping, but during the 7.5km skiing element of the competition he managed to overhaul everyone but the winner Ronny Ackermann of Germany and runner-up Todd Lodwick of the USA. Ackermann won by 13 seconds from Lodwick, with Manninen a further 6.5 seconds down.
      The result leaves Ackermann heading the FIS World Cup points table with 540 points, while Manninen has 446. The next competition, over the normal 15 kilometre distance and with two jumps counted, will be in Schonach, Germany, on January 6th.


Links:
  FIS results

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