Ski Flying World Championship 2004

Letalnica

The ski flying world championship 2004 took place from February 19th to 22nd at Letalnica in Planica , Slovenia . The individual competition was won by Roar Ljøkelsøy from Norway in front of the two Finns Janne Ahonen and Tami Kiuru . The Norwegian team won the team competition, Finland came second and Austria came third .

Attendees

55 athletes from 18 countries traveled to the World Cup (number of athletes in brackets):

Germany (5)  Estonia (2)  Finland (4)  France (2)  Japan (4)  Norway (4)  Austria (4)  Poland (4)  Russia (4)

Sweden (1)  Switzerland (2)  Slovakia (1)  Slovenia (4)  South Korea (2)  Czech Republic (4)  United States (2)  Belarus (4)  Italy (2)

Individual competition

space	Surname	country	Points
01	Roar Ljøkelsøy	Norway	832.1
02	Janne Ahonen	Finland	814.1
03	Tami Kiuru	Finland	813.0
04th	Georg Späth	Germany	808.8
05	Tommy Ingebrigtsen	Norway	807.2
06th	Bjørn Einar Romøren	Norway	798.7
07th	Matti Hautamäki	Finland	794.9
08th	Veli-Matti Lindström	Finland	783.7
09	Sigurd Pettersen	Norway	781.5
10	Michael Uhrmann	Germany	778.9
11	Adam Malysz	Poland	777.1
12	Robert Kranjec	Slovenia	773.7
13	Thomas Morgenstern	Austria	757.8
14th	Simon Ammann	Switzerland	744.0
15th	Wolfgang Loitzl	Austria	713.0
16	Andreas Widhölzl	Austria	709.1
17th	Sven Hannawald	Germany	701.9
18th	Emmanuel Chedal	France	690.6
19th	Martin Höllwarth	Austria	624.5
20th	Daiki Itō	Japan	614.3
21st	Rok Benkovič	Slovenia	609.9
22nd	Clint Jones	United States	607.3
23	Andreas Kuettel	Switzerland	594.8
24	Noriaki Kasai	Japan	583.6
25th	Jens Salumäe	Estonia	575.5
26th	Hideharu Miyahira	Japan	560.7
27	Denis Kornilov	Russia	556.5
28	Mateusz Rutkowski	Poland	501.6
29	Martin Mesík	Slovakia	498.0
30th	Maximilian Mechler	Germany	471.6

The qualification planned for Thursday, February 19th , was canceled due to strong crosswinds and persistent snowfall. Therefore, the first round was carried out on February 20th with the entire starting field. Only the best 30 athletes from the first round qualified for the next three flights.

In the first run, only two ski flyers made it to the 200-meter mark with a small run-up. Tommy Ingebrigtsen flew the furthest (204.5 m), Georg Späth (203.5 m) landed just behind . In the second round, the jury extended the approach. Späth benefited from this and flew to the German record range of 225 meters. Ingebrigtsen reached the same distance, but fell and got several points deducted from the judges. At the end of the first day or the first two rounds, Georg Späth surprisingly led with 14.5 points ahead of Tami Kiuru . Janne Ahonen was another 4.7 points behind and Roar Ljøkelsøy was in fourth place with a gap of 0.4 points on Ahonen.

On the second day, Späth was unable to match the previous day's performance. With flights at 202.5 and 195.5 meters, he finally achieved fourth place. Janne Ahonen relegated his compatriot Kiuru to third place in the last round and thus secured the silver medal. On the other hand, Roar Ljøkelsøy won confidently . He flew 222 in the third and 210.5 meters in the fourth.

The individual competition was dominated by Scandinavian pilots. Eight of the top ten came from Norway or Finland . The remaining two were Germans, Michael Uhrmann and Georg Späth . The competition was disappointing for defending champion Sven Hannawald (17th place) and fellow favorite Adam Małysz (11th place). Vice World Champion Martin Schmitt was unable to qualify for the next rounds as 33rd due to a failed flight in the first round. The Austrians also disappointed. Her best jumper, Thomas Morgenstern , came in 13th.

Team competition

space	country	Jumper	Points
01	Norway	Bjørn Einar Romøren Sigurd Pettersen Tommy Ingebrigtsen Roar Ljøkelsøy	1711.8
02	Finland	Veli-Matti Lindström Tami Kiuru Matti Hautamäki Janne Ahonen	1704.1
03	Austria	Wolfgang Loitzl Thomas Morgenstern Andreas Goldberger Andreas Widhölzl	1620.8
04th	Germany	Martin Schmitt Georg Späth Sven Hannawald Michael Uhrmann	1606.4
05	Japan	Daiki Itō Noriaki Kasai Akira Higashi Hideharu Miyahira	1574.5
06th	Slovenia	Bine Zupan Rok Benkovič Robert Kranjec Primož Peterka	1503.4
07th	Russia	Dmitri Wassiljew Dmitri Ipatow Denis Kornilow Alexei Silajew	1404.5
08th	Poland	Adam Małysz Mateusz Rutkowski Robert Mateja Wojciech Skupień	1386.8
09	Czech Republic	Lukáš Hlava Jan Mazoch Jan Matura Jakub Janda	0674.9
10	Belarus	Dimitri Afanasenko Alexander Swetlow Pyotar Tschaadajeu Maxim Anissimau	0372.4

For the first time a team competition took place on Sunday, February 22nd, 2004 as part of a ski flying world championship . Four ski flyers per team started in two rounds. Eight teams competed. Because of the individual competition, Norway and Finland were the favorites. The leadership changed constantly between the two nations. After the first round, Norway was just ahead with 11.3 points. In the second round, Bjørn Einar Romøren managed the longest flight of the entire world championship at 227 meters. As the last ski flyer of his team, Roar Ljøkelsøy secured the gold medal for Norway with a set of 225 meters. Finland took second place only 7.7 points behind. Austria , Germany and Japan competed for third place . Austria was finally able to prevail and take bronze.

Web links

• More detailed results - single flies
• More detailed results - team flights