Four Hills Tournament 1955/56

4. Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Nikolai Kamensky
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Eino Kirjonen
Oberstdorf	Hemmo Silvennoinen
innsbruck	Koba Zakadze
Hallein	Yuri Skvortsov
Attendees
Nations	10 ( AUT , CAN , FIN , FRG , GDR , JUG , NOR , SUI , TCH , URS )
athlete	min. 52
← 1954/55	1956/57 →

During the 4th Four Hills Tournament in 1955/56 , jumping took place in Oberstdorf on December 31st, followed by jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 1st, and jumping in Innsbruck on January 6th . The event, which was planned for Bischofshofen, was moved to the Zinkenschanze in Hallein due to the lack of snow and held on January 8th. For the first time jumpers from the GDR, Canada, the Soviet Union and the ČSSR took part, but the Swedish athletes were missing. The Soviet Union provided the tour winner with Nikolai Kamenski. For the West and East German jumpers, the first 3 competitions, together with a previous competition in Oberhof, Thuringia, were qualifying competitions for participation in the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Nominee athletes

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Max Bolkart , Sepp Weiler , Georg Thoma , Sepp Kleisl , Toni Brutscher , Edi Heilingbrunner , Hans Leppert , Sepp Hohenleitner , Ewald Roscher , Hermann Anwander , Toni Landenhammer , Franz Eder
GDR	Harry Glaß , Werner Lesser , Helmut Recknagel , Gerhard Glaß , Horst Lesser , Helmut Döbrich
Austria	Josef Bradl , Walter Habersatter , Rudi Schweinberger , Otto Leodolter , Alois Leodolter , Walter Steinegger , Ferdl Kerber , Albin Plank , Rudi Dietrich
Finland	Hemmo Silvennoinen , Eino Kirjonen , Kari Heinonen , Aulis Kallakorpi
Yugoslavia	Janez Polda
Canada	Jacques Charland
Norway	Asbjørn Osnes , Arnfinn Karlstad , Sverre Stallvik , Olaf B. Bjørnstad
Switzerland	Fritz Schneider , Fritz Tschannen , Francis Perret , Rudi Bertschi , Willi Girard
Soviet Union	Nikolai Kamensky , Nikolai Shamow , Nikolai Trussow , Koba Zakadze , Yuri Skworzow , Viktor Afanasjew
Czechoslovakia	Mojmír Stuchlík , Jáchym Bulín , Zdeněk Remsa , Václav Vašut

These athletes are listed in the FIS lists, which are, however, incomplete. So more athletes could have participated, especially for Yugoslavia.

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 31, 1955
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze

After 1954, the Finns again won the opening competition in Oberstdorf. Eino Kirjonen and Aulis Kallakorpi achieved exactly the same number of points. Behind them touring newcomer Harry Glaß from the GDR surprised with 3rd place. His team mate Werner Lesser completed the good debut of the GDR jumpers with 6th place. But the West German athletes also showed a strong team performance with places 4, 5 and 9. The later overall winner Kamenski set a first warning with place 7. His team-mate Koba Zakadze missed a top position with a 14th place due to a fall in the second run after he had flown the best distance in the first run.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Eino Kirjonen	Finland	224.0
01	Aulis Kallakorpi	Finland	224.0
03	Harry Glass	GDR	219.0
04th	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	216.0
05	Toni Brutscher	BR Germany	209.5
05	Werner Lesser	GDR	209.5
07th	Nikolai Kamensky	Soviet Union	209.0
08th	Sverre Stallvik	Norway	208.5
09	Sepp Kleisl	BR Germany	205.0
10	Sepp Bradl	Austria	204.5

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 1, 1956
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill

The Finns also dominated New Year's jumping again. This time the winner was Hemmo Silvennoinen. Behind the runner-up Eino Kirjonen Harry Glaß jumped again to 3rd place. Thus, after two competitions, Eino Kirjonen was ahead of Harry Glass, who was only half a point separated from the third Aulis Kallakorpi. However, the favorite Finns and the Norwegian jumping team left after the jumping to prepare for the Olympic Games. So after 3 competitions a new overall leader was to be expected in any case.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Kirjonen	443.5
02.	Glass	437.5
03.	Kallakorpi	437.0

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Hemmo Silvennoinen	Finland	221.5
01	Eino Kirjonen	Finland	219.5
03	Harry Glass	GDR	218.5
04th	Nikolai Kamensky	Soviet Union	217.0
05	Asbjorn Osnes	Norway	216.5
06th	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	216.0
07th	Nikolai Shamov	Soviet Union	213.0
07th	Aulis Kallakorpi	Finland	213.0
09	Sepp Weiler	BR Germany	211.5
10	Sepp Bradl	Austria	208.5

innsbruck

• Date: January 6, 1956
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump

In Innsbruck, with little snow (14 trucks brought 600 cubic meters of snow from the area), there was a tour premiere on Epiphany: the first Soviet victory of the day. The Soviet jumpers had already indicated their potential in the first two competitions. Until then, however, the winner of the day Koba Zakadze always fell in one of the two rounds. In Innsbruck he made both jumps. After setting an unofficial hill record with 82.5 m in training, he also set the hill record at that time in competition with 79.5 m. However, this victory was favored by the lack of strong Finns. Harry Glaß improved again to second place and thus decided the domestic German duel ahead of Max Bolkart, who was third. Glass thus led with 20.5 points ahead of Nikolai Kamenski and the new third-placed Austrian Sepp Bradl. A total of 5 German jumpers were among the top ten. After the outcome of the jumping, the ski associations of the GDR and the FRG announced the ski jumping team for the Olympic Games. Harry Glaß, Max Bolkart, Sepp Kleisl and Sepp Weiler were nominated. Werner Lesser and Toni Brutscher were chosen as replacements. After this nomination, the 4 Olympic jumpers left, as Innsbruck also ended the Olympic qualification within Germany. In addition, the first Olympic participation of GDR ski jumpers should not be jeopardized despite the overall leadership of Harry Glass.

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Glass	660.5
02.	Kamensky	639.0
03.	Bradl	614.5

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Koba Zakadze	Soviet Union	225
02	Harry Glass	GDR	223
03	Max Bolkart	BR Germany	217
04th	Nikolai Shamov	Soviet Union	213.5
05	Janez Polda	Yugoslavia	213.5
06th	Nikolai Kamensky	Soviet Union	213
07th	Georg Thoma	BR Germany	211
08th	Sepp Kleisl	BR Germany	208
09	Werner Lesser	GDR	206
10	Rudolf Schweinberger	Austria	206

Hallein

• Date: January 8, 1956
• Country: Austria 
• Schanze: Zinkenschanze

Due to a lack of snow, the jumping had to be moved from Bischofshofen to Hallein, where jumping was done on the zinc hill, which was built in 1952. When the competition was thinned out, including the German Olympic squad with Harry Glaß, who had been the overall leader until then, a Soviet jumper once again won the day. This time the winner was Yuri Skworzow . It was to be his only notable success in his jumping career. His teammate Zakadze jumped a new hill record with 66 m in the first round, but fell, as so often on this tour, in the second round. The Czechoslovak team appeared for the first time, 3 of their jumpers made it into the top ten.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Yuri Skvortsov	Soviet Union	218.5
02	Mojmír Stuchlík	Czechoslovakia	215.0
02	Rudolf Schweinberger	Austria	215.0
04th	Nikolai Kamensky	Soviet Union	214.5
05	Sepp Bradl	Austria	213.0
06th	Nikolai Shamov	Soviet Union	212.5
07th	Jáchym Bulín	Czechoslovakia	210.5
08th	Werner Lesser	GDR	209.0
09	Franz Eder	BR Germany	209.0
10	Zdeněk Remsa	Czechoslovakia	208.5

Total status

In the overall standings, the Soviet jumper Nikolai Kamenski led the field. Although he did not win a jumping, he always placed in the top ten. However, it has to be taken into account that the strong Finnish jumpers left after 2 day victories. In addition, the Norwegian athletes were missing from Innsbruck and the German Olympic team was no longer at the start in Hallein. Thus, the Soviet team succeeded in winning the tour when they entered the tour. In addition, two Soviet jumpers were among the top ten. In addition to Kamenski, his colleague Zakadze impressed the most with daring jumps, but also many falls. The jumpers from the GDR who competed for the first time also caused a positive surprise, especially in the person of Harry Glaß. He was third twice of the day and once second. However, he only completed 3 competitions, after which he even led the overall tour score. Only Werner Lesser took part in all four competitions and finished in a respectable 6th place. Former master Sepp Bradl took a more than respectable second place in the final bill on his 38th birthday.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Nikolai Kamensky	Soviet Union	850.0
02	Sepp Bradl	Austria	827.0
03	Nikolai Shamov	Soviet Union	826.0
04th	Rudolf Schweinberger	Austria	818.5
05	Koba Zakadze	Soviet Union	799.0
06th	Werner Lesser	GDR	793.0
07th	Edi Heilingbrunner	BR Germany	787.5
08th	Otto Leodolter	Austria	785.5
09	Hermann Anwander	BR Germany	781.5
10	Hans Leppert	BR Germany	781.0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Finnish double victory in Oberstdorf . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 1, 1956, p. 32 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Former Bradl first Olympic candidate . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 3, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 7, 1956, p. 8
4. ↑ Trucks brought snow . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 6, 1956, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Neues Deutschland, January 8, 1956, p. 6
6. ↑ FIS results list
7. ↑ Bradl second in the knight's tournament . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 10, 1956, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
8. ↑ Total status on the FIS website