Four Hills Tournament 1978/79

27th Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Pentti Kokkonen
Oberstdorf	Yuri Ivanov
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Josef Samek
innsbruck	Pentti Kokkonen
Bischofshofen	Pentti Kokkonen
Attendees
Nations	18th
athlete	84
← 1977/78	1979/80 →

The 27th Four Hills Tournament 1978/79 was an international ski jumping competition that was held from December 30, 1978 to January 6, 1979 in Germany and Austria . The venues were Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) as well as Innsbruck and Bischofshofen (Austria). The winner of the tour was Pentti Kokkonen from Finland .

Attendees

The pre-Olympic season was seen by the leading jumping nations as an important test field for the Olympic Games in Lake Placid , especially since the staff carousel had turned a lot. The two-time ski flying world champion and long-standing top jumper Walter Steiner from Switzerland had announced his retirement from competitive sports after several operations after the 1977/78 season. However, he had grown up with Hansjörg Sumi , who made people sit up and take notice with his victory in the Christmas jumping competition on December 26, 1978 in St. Moritz . With the Austrians, the problems did not end. After Olympic champion Karl Schnabl quit competitive sport after his serious injury at the World Championships in Lahti , Toni Innauer , who was on the upswing , suffered a severe ligament injury while training at the end of November 1978 and was ultimately out for the entire season. The focus was now on the World Cup runner-up, Alois Lipburger, and the growing strength of Claus Tuchscherer . The bad luck with injuries had also struck in the GDR selection. The long-time high performer and often named as a favorite for the title, Henry Glass suffered a painful bruise of the collarbone during training, which prevented him from being nominated for a tour. With the world champion from the small hill Mathias Buse , the bronze medalist from the large hill Falko Weißpflog and the recovered, two-time tournament winner Jochen Danneberg , there were at least three victorious jumpers in the squad. Jürgen Thomas was no longer considered, for the first time the young jumpers Klaus Ostwald and the only 17-year-old Manfred Deckert were nominated. And another nation had finally returned to the circle of favorites after the successes of the previous season. After year-round training had also been introduced for the Finns, successes quickly became apparent : Kari Ylianttila won the Four Hills Tournament, Tapio Räisänen became world champion on the large hill. Both were on the tour, although the form of last year's winner Ylianttila after a broken ankle at the World Championships in Lahti was unknown. In addition, there were Törmänen, Puikkonen and Kokkonen Springer, who had won the silver medal behind the GDR representation at the first, still unofficial Team World Cup. The Finnish line-up comprised a total of seven jumpers, bigger than in a few years. The jumpers from the Soviet Union with third place in the World Cup Borowitin and the Czechoslovaks were also among the extended favorites. At the DSV, nothing was left untried to make the connection to the top of the world. As a result, the German selection was by far the youngest. Seven out of eleven jumpers were 18 years old, Peter Leitner could consider himself senior in the group at the age of 24. The bird was shot down with Thomas Klauser . The Upper Bavarian was fourteen and a half years old when he made his tour debut! In the jumping field itself there was a new nation to welcome with Spain. The Hungarians were back after years of abstinence for the first time since the 71/72 tour.

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Christoph Schwarz , Peter Leitner , Peter Schwinghammer , Hubert Schwarz , Hans-Jürgen Eschrich , Hermann Weinbuch , Frank Sternkopf , Georg Waldvogel , Thomas Klauser , Thomas Prosser , Dirk Kramer
GDR	Jochen Danneberg , Martin Weber , Harald Duschk , Falko Weißpflog , Mathias Buse , Bernd Eckstein , Klaus Ostwald , Manfred Deckert
Austria	Hans Millonig , Alois Lipburger , Claus Tuchscherer , Armin Kogler , Hubert Neuper , Willi Pürstl , Alfred Groyer , Alfred Lengauer , Fritz Esser , Heinz Koch , Rudi Wanner , Edi Federer
Finland	Jouko Törmänen , Kari Ylianttila , Jari Puikkonen , Pentti Kokkonen , Tapio Räisänen , Seppo Reijonen , Keijo Korhonen
France	Patric Dubiez , Thierry Sauvanet , Philippe Jacoberger , Bernard Moullier
Italy	Ivano Wegher , Lido Tomasi
Japan	Yūji Kawamura , Sakae Tsuruga , Hirokazu Yagi
Yugoslavia	Zdravko Bogataj , Marko Mlakar , Bogdan Norčič , Andrej Kaizer , Miran Tepes
Canada	Tauno Käyhkö
Norway	Johan Sætre , Per Bergerud , Ulf Joergensen , Roger Ruud
Poland	Stanisław Pawlusiak , Piotr Fijas , Stanisław Bobak
Sweden	Christer Karlsson
Switzerland	Hansjörg Sumi , Mario Rinaldi , Harald Reichenbach , Paul Egloff , Robert Mösching
Soviet Union	Alexei Borowitin , Yuri Ivanov , Vladimir Chernyayev , Valeri Savin , Vladimir Vlasov , Sergei Muchin , Sergei Saitschik
Spain	Thomas Cano
Czechoslovakia	Leoš Škoda , Ján Tánczos , Ivo Felix , Josef Samek
Hungary	László Fischer , Robert Fogarasi , Zoltan Kelemen , Gábor Gellér
United States	Kip Sundgaard , Jim Denney

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 30, 1978
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze
• Spectators: 15,000

In the context of the general thaw over the Christmas days with temperatures well above 0 ° C and until then little snowfall, the organizers had enormous difficulties in properly preparing the ski jump. Nevertheless, it was possible to create decent training conditions, even though the American Reed Zuehlke had a hard crash on the second day of training.
On the day of the competition, the conditions were acceptable after 15 hours of continuous rain. And the first round ended almost as expected with a tour by Jochen Danneberg, while the second placed Ivanov was not necessarily expected there. Together with the Finn Kokkonen, only these three jumpers jumped over the hundred meter mark in the first round. Surprisingly, the Austrian Pürstl was among the top five after years of drought, while his compatriot Tuchscherer was only in 21st place after the first round.
In the second run, the drop in temperatures after about the 20th jumper made the track faster and thus the distances larger. This also led to the daily best distance of 107 m for Tuchscherer, which ultimately brought him to fourth place. In the top group, Danneberg jumped the shortest with 103.5 m, while Kokkonen jumped 105 m and Iwanow jumped 105.5. In the end, this meant the not necessarily expected victory of the day by Ivanov with only 0.9 points ahead of Danneberg, who was 2.1 points ahead of Kokkonen. A total of five nations made it into the top ten, including two Finns and two Austrians. The feared dominance of the GDR jumpers, when there were up to six jumpers in the top ten in recent years, did not materialize.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Yuri Ivanov	Soviet Union	235.4
02	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	234.5
03	Pentti Kokkonen	Finland	232.4
04th	Klaus Tuchscherer	Austria	224.4
05	Ján Tánczos	Czechoslovakia	222.8
06th	Harald showerk	GDR	222.6
07th	Willi Pürstl	Austria	221.6
08th	Hansjörg Sumi	Switzerland	220.2
09	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	217.7
10	Jari Puikkonen	Finland	216.3

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 2nd, 1979 (canceled on January 1st due to weather conditions and postponed to January 2nd)
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill

The catastrophic winter of 1978/79 also had an indirect impact on New Year's jumping. After continuous rain, heavy snowfall had set in due to the sharp drop in temperatures, which, in combination with gusty winds, made jumping on New Year's Day impossible.
Even on the day of the jump itself, the event was not a lucky star. On the converted hill, as a result of which the run-up was shortened, the Norwegian Bergerud lost a ski in the run-up track in the trial run and fell over the take-off table. After this trial run, however, the event was officially opened, which postponed the start of jumping more and more. To make matters worse, the wind picked up again. As a result, the first round was canceled after a few jumpers and started again after more than two hours. Due to the enormous delays, ultimately only one round could be carried out. Due to the constantly changing wind conditions and the circumstances surrounding the competition, the outcome of the competition was rather surprising. The Czechoslovakian Samek won the only FIS jumping of his career, the Yugoslav Norčič, who had never been particularly noticed, came second of the day. Only in third place followed a favorite for the title with Kokkonen. With his ninth place in the daily standings, with which he was 4.3 points behind Kokkonen, Jochen Danneberg also lost the overall lead. But the Austrians were hit worse. Tuchscherer took 24th place, which slipped him to eighth place in the overall standings. With 74th place in the daily standings, Willi Pürstl had lost all ambitions for a top place in the overall standings.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Cocoons	346.8
02.	Danneberg	344.6
03.	Shower room	335.8
04th	Tanczos	334.3
05.	Sumi	331.4
05.	Norcic	330.8

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Josef Samek	Czechoslovakia	120.5
02	Bogdan Norčič	Yugoslavia	117.6
03	Pentti Kokkonen	Finland	114.4
04th	Harald showerk	GDR	113.2
05	Matthias Buse	GDR	112.5
06th	Ján Tánczos	Czechoslovakia	111.5
07th	Hansjörg Sumi	Switzerland	111.2
08th	Jim Denney	United States	110.3
09	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	110.1
10	Stanislaw Bobak	Poland	109.4

innsbruck

• Date: January 4th 1979
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump
• Spectators: 12,000

The competition at Bergisel started with bad news for the team from Austria during training. After his jump over 102 m in the run-out, Willi Pürstl was slowed down so hard by the dull snow that he dug up and fell head first. In addition to severe cuts on his face, he suffered a bruised chest and injuries on both hands, so that both of them had to be put in a cast.
On the day of the competition, after a 98 m jump by 17-year-old Manfred Deckert and a fall by Hans Wallner, the first round was canceled and, according to the Austrian media, the take-off table was set back 75 cm, mainly at the instigation of the GDR team management. Due to the now changed hill profile, many jumpers had problems with the jump and distances over the hundred meter mark were completely absent. Thus the overall leader Kokkonen with 98 m laid the foundation stone for the day's victory, which he achieved with the same distance in the second round. He relegated the Norwegians Ruud and Danneberg to their places and was able to increase his lead in the overall standings on the Thuringian to over 14 points. While the GDR team showed 5 jumpers among the top ten and thus increasing form, the protagonists of the previous competitions such as Samek or Iwanow also came in. In the Austrians too, only Claus Tuchscherer was able to convince with seventh place, while the rest of Preiml's team came in far behind. The Swiss Sumi came back into the top ten and thus slipped further up the overall standings.

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Cocoons	578.1
02.	Danneberg	563.4
03.	Shower room	551.8
04th	Sumi	546.8
05.	Cloth shearers	538.0
06th	Bosom	531.8

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Pentti Kokkonen	Finland	231.3
02	Roger Ruud	Norway	224.6
03	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	218.8
04th	Harald showerk	GDR	216.0
05	Hansjörg Sumi	Switzerland	215.4
06th	Manfred Deckert	GDR	213.3
07th	Klaus Tuchscherer	Austria	213.2
08th	Johan Sætre	Norway	212.3
09	Martin Weber	GDR	212.2
10	Klaus Ostwald	GDR	211.3

Bischofshofen

After the overall leader Kokkonen had offered rather poor performance in training, especially the GDR jumpers around Danneberg still had hope of a day's victory and possibly even the overall victory. But the main players in the first round were the Swiss Sumi with 105.5 m and the Pole Fijas with 104 m, while Kokkonen still kept up with 99 m, but Danneberg already lost valuable points with 96.5 m. With a 106.5 m set in the second round, Kokkonen finally snatched the day's victory from the Norwegian Saetre in a tight decision. The top quartet, which was completed by Sumi and Fijas, was only 1.7 points apart between first and fourth place. The defeated on that day were the jumpers from the GDR, who again had 3 athletes in the top ten, but had a large gap to the top. The surprise of the day was 20-year-old Fijas, who achieved his first podium finish in third place in a major ski jumping competition.

• Date: January 6, 1979
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
• Spectators: 5,000

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Pentti Kokkonen	Finland	237.5
02	Johan Sætre	Norway	236.9
03	Piotr Fijas	Poland	236.0
04th	Hansjörg Sumi	Switzerland	235.8
05	Jouko Törmänen	Finland	221.2
06th	Martin Weber	GDR	219.1
07th	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	217.8
08th	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	217.4
09	Tapio Räisänen	Finland	213.7
10	Harald showerk	GDR	213.6

Total status

The tour of the surprise winners and turbulence, this is how the 27th edition of the famous jumpers' tour could be described. More than usual, this time around the different hill conditions Constance was in demand, which did not necessarily have to be expressed by daily victories. In the end, the Swiss Sumi caught Jochen Danneberg with his four top ten placements and came in surprisingly second. However, Danneberg experienced the same thing in Bischofshofen as his long-term competitor Toni Innauer years before: Due to his bad position on the day, he lost valuable points and in the end slipped to third place. The same happened to Harald Duschk, who, meanwhile in third place, still slipped from the podium and was only 0.1 points ahead of fourth place in the overall standings. Among the discoveries of the tour was Sumi, without a doubt, the Pole Fijas, who weeks later won bronze at the Ski Flying World Championships . With the Austrians only Tuchscherer could convince with seventh place, after the failure of Innauer and the resignation of Schnabl there was apparently a big gap. However, a few weeks later, Armin Kogler became world ski flying champion. After two tour victories in a row it was now clear that the Finns were finally back in the top of the world.

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Garmisch- Partenk.	Inns- Bruckhaus	Episcopate hofen
01	Pentti Kokkonen	Finland	812.0	232.4 / 03.	114.4 / 03.	231.3 / 01.	237.5 / 01.
02	Hansjörg Sumi	Switzerland	782.6	220.2 / 08.	111.2 / 07.	215.4 / 05.	235.8 / 04.
03	Jochen Danneberg	GDR	780.8	234.5 / 02.	110.1 / 09.	218.8 / 03.	217.4 / 08.
04th	Harald showerk	GDR	765.4	222.6 / 06.	113.2 / 04.	216.0 / 04.	213.6 / 10.
05	Johan Saetre	Norway	765.3	214.3 / 11.	101.8 / 20.	213.3 / 08.	236.9 / 02.
06th	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	748.3	217.7 / 06.	108.9 / 11.	203.9 / 13.	217.8 / 07.
07th	Claus Tuchscherer	Austria	748.1	222.4 / 04.	100.4 / 23.	213.2 / 07.	210.1 / 15.
08th	Mathias Buse	GDR	741.9	209.1 / 16.	112.5 / 05.	210.2 / 11.	210.1 / 15.
09	Martin Weber	GDR	739.5	201.7 / 27.	106.5 / 13.	212.2 / 09.	219.1 / 06.
10	Piotr Fijas	Poland	737.2	192.6 / 38.	104.2 / 14.	196.0 / 17.	236.0 / 03.

literature

• Willi Knecht: The divided arena . Presseverlag Bahr, Nuremberg 1968

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of December 27, 1978 p. 7
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland from December 30, 1978 p. 15
3. ↑ «The Austrians have a say» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 31, 1978, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 2, 1979 p. 9
5. ↑ ^{a b} Neues Deutschland from January 2, 1979 p. 9
6. ↑ «No sense of time and wind» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 2, 1979, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
7. ^ "Willi Pürstl fell, both hands in plaster" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 4, 1979, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
8. ↑ "Knockers-off Festival" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 5, 1979, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
9. ↑ Neues Deutschland, January 8, 1979, p. 8