Tschofenig dominates in Courchevel

Daniel Tschofenig won both competitions at the second stop of the Summer Grand Prix in Courchevel. The Austrian narrowly beat reigning overall champion Philipp Raimund in both events, underlining his strong early-season form. At the same time, the Austrian men’s team delivered an impressive collective performance in France.

Saturday’s opening competition developed into a closely fought contest. After the first round, the top five were separated by just a few points. Maximilian Ortner led ahead of his Austrian teammate Tschofenig, followed by Naoki Nakamura, Stefan Kraft and Philipp Raimund.

The balance of power shifted in the second round. Raimund produced a strong 131-metre jump in difficult conditions and initially took the lead. Tschofenig could not quite match the German’s distance, but impressed with excellent style marks. With 271.8 points, he finished just 1.7 points ahead of Raimund. Nakamura took third place, while Ortner narrowly missed the podium in fourth. Stephan Embacher completed the strong Austrian result in fifth.

The other Austrians also contributed to an impressive team performance. Norway’s Marius Lindvik finished sixth. For Raimund, it was his first podium finish as he began his bid to defend his Summer Grand Prix title.

Men’s results

In the women’s competition, victory went to Norwegian double Olympic champion Anna Odine Strøm. She won by a clear margin ahead of Yuki Ito and Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen. Local favourite Josephine Pagnier finished seventh. Kurumi Ichinohe took fourth place, while Ema Klinec finished fifth.

Women’s results

The result was again undecided until the final jump on Sunday. After the first round, Tschofenig, Raimund, Ortner and Kraft were separated by just 1.3 points. Tschofenig held a narrow lead over Raimund and Ortner.

In the final round, Kraft initially set a strong benchmark with a jump of 131.5 metres. Ortner then produced the longest jump of the day, reaching 135.5 metres, but was unable to fully control the landing and dropped back to fourth place. Raimund took the lead with a 132-metre jump and strong style marks.

As the final jumper, Tschofenig had to contend with a slight tailwind. His 128.5 metres were enough, thanks to excellent style marks, to narrowly beat Raimund once again. With 278.3 points, he finished 1.2 points ahead of the German. Kraft took third, Gregor Deschwanden finished fifth and Jonas Schuster sixth. Once again, five Austrians finished inside the top ten.

The competition was made more difficult by rain and changing wind conditions and had to be interrupted several times. Nevertheless, the athletes produced several long jumps to provide an exciting finish to the weekend.

Naoki Nakamura remains at the top of the overall standings after finishing third and eighth in Courchevel. Following his two victories, Tschofenig moves up to second place, with Gregor Deschwanden third. Raimund is fourth.

Men’s results

In the women’s competition on Sunday, Yuki Ito took centre stage. The Japanese athlete capitalised on Anna Odine Strøm’s fall to claim her first Grand Prix victory in nine years. Strøm crashed after a 130-metre jump but was able to leave the hill under her own power. Due to an elbow injury, she subsequently withdrew from the second round.

Ito finished ahead of Selina Freitag and Ping Zeng. Freitag moved up from fourth to second place in the final round, while Zeng recorded the best jump of the second round to claim her first Grand Prix podium finish. Ingvild Synnoeve Midtskogen finished fourth, Ema Klinec fifth and Josephine Pagnier sixth. With her victory, Ito also took the lead in the overall standings. Klinec and Pagnier occupy the next two positions.

Women’s results

The Summer Grand Prix will continue on September 19 and 20 in Râșnov, Romania. The final will take place on October 24 and 25 in Klingenthal, Germany.

Photo: Tadeusz Mieczynski