Ski flying world championship 1977

The 4th Ski Flying World Championship was held for the first time from February 17 to 20, 1977 on Vikersundbakken in Vikersund , Norway . A total of 41 jumpers from twelve nations started. At that time women were not yet allowed to ski jumping or even ski flying . There was also no team competition yet. The winner Walter Steiner was the first ski jumper to become world ski flying champion for the second time.

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The world championship was designed to meet almost all top jumpers of the jumping season 1976/77. But the current Four Hills Tournament winner was missing, Jochen Danneberg's old knee injury had broken open again. The GDR team management then paused the Thuringian. Thus, one jumper came into focus who was already at the top of the first ski flying world championship : the Swiss Walter Steiner . After his second place in the Four Hills Tournament, his performances were still stable and at the beginning of February 1977 he won the Swiss ski jumping tournament in a convincing manner by a large margin. He was victorious in three of four competitions. Another favorite to win was the unlucky fellow of the Four Hills Tournament, Toni Innauer . After his mishap in Bischofshofen, the man from Vorarlberg now had enough motivation to put himself in the limelight at the second highlight of the season. But teammate and Olympic champion Karl Schnabl and old master Reinhold Bachler were also among the expanded favorites. Despite the absence of Danneberg, the GDR selection also had a well-known line-up: with Glaß, Duschk and Meisinger, three top ten jumpers of the Four Hills Tournament were nominated, plus Falko Weißpflog, a proven ski flyer who last year at the ski flying week in Oberstdorf briefly held the world record with 174 m. However, Toni Innauer trumped him at the same event with his dream flight of 176 m. The Norwegians around Johan Sætre and Per Bergerud could not be completely written off; Borowitin and Ivanov had made the strongest impression from the Soviet team.

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The athletes jumped three times on three days of the competition, of which the best jump was included in the rating. For the average value of the ten longest jumps per round, regardless of whether they fell or stood, a total of 120 points was awarded. Then there were the posture grades. The overall winner was the jumper with the most points from all three competition days.

1. Jump day

In ideal conditions without a lot of wind and temperatures around −6 ° C, ski flying world record holder Toni Innauer came out on top of the overall standings, which was a little surprising for him. After Alexej Borowitin from the Soviet Union had taken the lead with 144 m in the first round, Innauer countered in the second round with 145 m and similar posture marks, so that he pushed himself half a point ahead of the jumper from the Soviet Union. Borowitin was able to achieve the daily maximum distance of 146 m in the third run, but with the highest average of 132 m it only reached 188 points in this attempt, which was no improvement. Top favorite Walter Steiner, who fell in training at the hill record distance of 160 m, came in third with a flight of 142 m. Behind them were three GDR jumpers, with Thomas Meisinger as the best representative.

space	Surname	country	Points
01	Toni Innauer	Austria	189.5
02	Alexei Borowitin	Soviet Union	189.0
03	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	186.0
04th	Thomas Meisinger	GDR	184.5
05	Henry Glass	GDR	181.5
06th	Martin Weber	GDR	173.5
07th	Per Bergerud	Norway	169.0
08th	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	168.0
08th	Bogdan Norčič	Yugoslavia	168.0
10	Tapio Räisänen	Finland	165.0

2nd jump day

On the second day of the jump, the overall classification was mixed up because of the weather conditions. Blowing snow and wind made the jumpers to create and Toni Innauer was ultimately the most prominent victim. After he was only able to book a distance of 90 m in the first run, he sailed at least 132 m in the second run, which meant eleventh place in the daily standings. As a result, the Vorarlberger slipped to fourth place in the overall ranking. Instead, other jumpers moved into the focus of the action. The Czechoslovak František Novák already set a big warning in the first round with 143 m. Due to the low average value of the round, he achieved such a high point value that he no longer exceeded it with his 145 m in the third round. Walter Steiner topped the 143 m in the second round with the daily maximum distance of 148 m. Due to the higher average value in the second round, it was not enough for the Swiss to overtake Novak. In the third round, Harald Duschk achieved the second highest daily distance of 147 m, which gave him the day's victory with one point ahead of Novak. For the Finn Räisänen, 142 m was enough in the third round to get past Steiner and take third place. In the overall standings, however, the Swiss had pushed himself into first place thanks to his consistency, followed by Henry Glaß and Alexej Borowitin. Since Innauer was just 1.5 points behind the Soviet jumper, he saw his chances for a medal still preserved.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Steiner	373.5
02.	Glass	361.0
03.	Borowitin	358.5
04th	Innauer	357.0
05.	Shower room	355.5
06th	Räisänen	354.0
07th	Weber	351.0
08th.	Novák	349.5
09.	Skoda	347.5
10.	Meisinger	344.0

space	Surname	country	Points
01	Harald showerk	GDR	192.5
02	František Novák	Czechoslovakia	191.5
03	Tapio Räisänen	Finland	189.0
04th	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	187.5
05	Yuri Ivanov	Soviet Union	183.0
06th	Josef Samek	Czechoslovakia	180.5
07th	Henry Glass	GDR	179.5
07th	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	179.5
09	Martin Weber	GDR	177.5
10	Alexei Borowitin	Soviet Union	169.5

3rd jump day

On the last day of the flight, the jury had extended the attempt after the rather modest performance of the previous day, a decision that was almost to take revenge. In addition to the new hill record of 157 m by the Czechoslovakian Novak, no fewer than nine jumpers sailed over the 140 m mark, seven of them over the critical point of 142 m. This led to the jury meeting in front of the last two jumpers to discuss whether the round should be canceled. In the end, the last two remaining jumpers were sent down and only then was the run-up shortened. However, this high level of the first round had an impact. Due to the very high average value of 147 m, Novak received only 10 additional distance points for his record flight, which led to the fact that the winner of the day Steiner with his 151 m of the second round received 8.5 points more than the Czechoslovakian. The second Innauer of the day benefited from the clearly falling third run. At 148 m, it was well above the average width of 135 m. According to Innauer's own statements, Steiner also contributed, who did not increase the average value with a safety jump of 136 m.

space	Surname	country	Points
01	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	191.0
02	Toni Innauer	Austria	190.0
03	František Novák	Czechoslovakia	182.5
04th	Alexei Borowitin	Soviet Union	181.5
05	Henry Glass	GDR	180.5
06th	Thomas Meisinger	GDR	179.0
07th	Harald showerk	GDR	178.0
07th	Yuri Ivanov	Soviet Union	177.5
09	Martin Weber	GDR	176.0
10	Tapio Räisänen	Finland	174.5

Overall result

With very different daily conditions, the most stable jumper prevailed in the end, World Cup favorite Walter Steiner. While his shortest distance was 131 m, all other competitors had a slack on at least one day. Toni Innauer won the silver medal on his last flight, but after the course of the competition it was almost unbelievable. Bronze was won by Henry Glaß, the most consistent jumper from the GDR, who was the only selection with all four jumpers in the top ten. In addition, the GDR was the only nation that had won a medal at all ski flying world championships by then. The surprise of the world championship was ultimately the new hill record holder František Novák from Czechoslovakia, who would have had a chance of a medal if the first day of competition had been better. The hosts from Norway, who did not have a jumper in the top ten, were particularly disappointing. A better team result for the Austrians was also prevented by the spread of the flu.

space	Surname	country	Total points
01	Walter Steiner	Switzerland	564.5
02	Toni Innauer	Austria	547.0
03	Henry Glass	GDR	541.5
04th	Alexei Borowitin	Soviet Union	539.5
05	Harald showerk	GDR	533.5
06th	František Novák	Czechoslovakia	532.0
07th	Tapio Räisänen	Finland	528.5
08th	Martin Weber	GDR	527.0
09	Thomas Meisinger	GDR	523.0
10	Leoš Škoda	Czechoslovakia	517.5
11	Yuri Ivanov	Soviet Union	513.0
12	Per Bergerud	Norway	488.0
13	Josef Samek	Czechoslovakia	487.5
14th	Pekka Hyvärinen	Finland	466.5
15th	Sergei Saitschik	Soviet Union	465.5
16	Robert Mösching	Switzerland	459.5
17th	Bogdan Norčič	Yugoslavia	459.0
18th	Vladimir Bubenov	Soviet Union	445.5
19th	Ján Tánczos	Czechoslovakia	440.0
20th	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	434.0
21st	Johan Saetre	Norway	431.5
22nd	Odd Brandsegg	Norway	428.5
23	Lennart Elimae	Sweden	421.5
24	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	415.5
25th	Karl Lustenberger	Switzerland	399.0
26th	Branko Dolhar	Yugoslavia	392.5
27	Janez Loštrek	Yugoslavia	389.5
28	Frank Rombach	BR Germany	389.0
29	Finn Halvorsen	Norway	386.5
30th	Kari Ylianttila	Finland	358.5
31	Jim Maki	United States	348.0
32	Karl Schnabl	Austria	287.0
33	Roger Ruud	Norway	254.5
34	Hans Millonig	Austria	235.0
35	Seppo Reijonen	Finland	210.0
36	Rudi Tusch	BR Germany	124.5
37	Christer Jolevi	Sweden	121.5
38	Marko Mlakar	Yugoslavia	118.0
39	Jim Denney	United States	113.0
40	Chris McNeill	United States	108.5
41	Ken Harkins	United States	106.5
41	Slawomir Kardas	Canada	106.5

Web links

• Overall result
• Ski Flying World Championship 1977 in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.skisprungschanzen.com/DE/Schanzen/NOR-Norwegen/06-Buskerud/Vikersund/0005-Skiflygingsbakke/
2. ↑ Neue Zeit of February 8, 1977, p. 6
3. ↑ ^{a b} Neues Deutschland from February 19, 1977, p. 5.
4. ↑ Innauer "Hope for a medal" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 20, 1977, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ ^{a b} Neues Deutschland from February 21, 1977, p. 7
6. ↑ Toni got silver . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 21, 1977, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).