Matti Hautamäki makes it three in succession in Kuopio

Janne Ahonen still waiting on his World Cup victory

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At least the crowd of 13,000 who turned out to watch the ski-jumping on the Puijo hill in Kuopio yesterday evening had something to cheer about: local boy Matti Hautamäki made two splendid jumps of 130.5 metres and 128 metres to win by 10.6 points from Roar Ljøkelsøy of Norway. It was the 23-year-old Hautamäki's third win in a row on the FIS World Cup circuit, marking a remarkable - but fairly typical for him - recovery in form towards the end of the season.
     
Hautamäki is currently lying in 7th place in the overall World Cup standings, with four competitions still to go. At his present rate of progress there is an outside chance he could even lift himself into 3rd place.
      He has a had a curious season: it is not that he has jumped badly, but he has consistently finished around 5th or 6th, with one or two ventures outside the top ten. On only three occasions has he made the podium, and each time it was as winner.
      He puts the change in fortunes down to a more relaxed approach now that "there is nothing left to lose". Ski-jumping is definitely a sport where trying too hard seldom pays off in metres jumped.
     
The bad news from Kuopio was that Janne Ahonen, the runaway leader of the World Cup, again showed his distaste for the big hill in Puijo.
      He finished in 12th place, his worst showing of the season so far. Since his main rival Ljøkelsøy scored 80 points for coming second, the gap between Ahonen and the Norwegian narrowed to 360 points, with four competitions left. Ahonen needs only 40 points to make matters secure, even assuming his main rival wins every time until the end of the season.
     
It therefore remains only a matter of time before Janne Ahonen will wrap up a title that was effectively settled when he won nearly all of the first dozen or so events at the end of last year, but Ahonen would dearly like to put in at least one more decent performance in order to end the season on a high note.
      In his last couple of outings he has been troubled by a niggling technical fault on take-off, and the combination of this and a long-lasting antipathy towards the Kuopio slope produced Wednesday's result.
     
He will have an opportunity to make amends on Friday, when the jumpers move to Lillehammer in Norway. This at least is among his favourite hills.
      For Hautamäki, the aim will be to consolidate his position in the Nordic Tournament, a "series-within-the-series" featuring four competitions in Lahti, Kuopio, Lillehammer, and finally Holmenkollen on March 13th. Hautamäki naturally leads after two competitions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hannu Manninen wraps up World Cup title in Lahti (7.3.2005)

Links:
  FIS Results

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