Four Hills Tournament 1967/68

16. Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Bjørn Wirkola
Oberstdorf	Dieter Neuendorf
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Bjørn Wirkola
innsbruck	Gari Napalkov
Bischofshofen	Jiří Raška
Attendees
Nations	16 (AUT, FIN, FRA, FRG, GDR, HUN, ITA, JPN, NOR, POL, SWE, SUI, TCH, URS, USA, YUG,)
athlete	97
← 1966/67	1968/69 →

At the 16th Four Hills Tournament in 1967/68 the jumping took place in Oberstdorf on December 30th, on January 1st the jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and on January 6th in Innsbruck followed . The event in Bischofshofen took place on January 7th.

Nominee athletes

In the 1968 Olympic season, the 16th Four Hills Tournament was the first meaningful test of strength among the world's best in ski jumping before the Olympic Games in Grenoble . With the Norwegian Wirkola as the reigning double world champion and the Finn Kankkonen as the Olympic champion on the normal hill, two tour winners were at the start who were among the closest favorites. There was also Dieter Neuendorf, Vice World Champion from the GDR, who by then had already finished second and third in the overall tour standings. These three jumpers had shaped the tour since 1965. The jumpers from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Wirkola's teammates were also counted among the extended group of favorites, as the course of the tour and the following Olympic Games should show.

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Walter Lampe , Henrik Ohlmeyer , Franz Keller , Günther Göllner , Wolfgang Happle , Oswald Schinze , Karl-Heinz Munk
GDR	Dieter Neuendorf , Josef Tonhauser , Horst Queck , Peter Lesser , Wolfgang Stöhr , Heinz Schmidt , Manfred Queck , Bernd Karwofsky
Austria	Max Golser , Willy Schuster , Baldur Preiml , Reinhold Bachler , Albert Heim , Walter Schwabl , Ernst Kröll , Franz Salhofer , Sepp Lichtenegger , Erich Schwabl
Finland	Veikko Kankkonen , Heikki Väisänen , Topi Mattila , Juhani Ruotsalainen , Keijo Laiho , Seppo Hannula
France	Alain Macle , Gilbert Poirot , Jean-Marie Poirot , James Yerrly , Michel Saint Lezer
Japan	Tadeo Narida
Yugoslavia	Marjan Pečar , Peter Eržen , Stanko Smolej , Peter Štefančič , Marjan Mesec , Ludvik Zajc
Italy	Giacomo Aimoni , Albino Bazana
Norway	Björn Wirkola , Ronald Jensen , Odd Hammernes , Per Bjørnstad , Bent Tomtum , Lars Grini
Poland	Józef Przybyła , Ryszard Witke , Józef Kocyan , Andrzej Sztolf , Stanisław Murzyniak
Sweden	Mats Östman , Håkon Lindbæck , Kjell Sjöberg , Eilert Mähler , Karl-Erik Johansson
Switzerland	Hans Schmid , Sepp Zehnder , Richard Pfiffner , Herbert Schmid , Urs Schöni , Jacky Rochat , Alois Kälin
Soviet Union	Pyotr Kovalenko , Vladimir Smirnov , Viktor Kryukov , Gari Napalkov , Nikolai Yablokov , Vyacheslav Shcherbakov , Alexander Ivannikov , Anatoly Scheglanov
Czechoslovakia	Jiří Raška , Rudolf Höhnl , Zbyněk Hubač , Dalibor Motejlek , Ladislav Divila , Rudolf Doubek , František Rydval
Hungary	Mihály Gellér , László Gellér , István Tóth
United States	Martin Jay , Adrian Watt , John Balfanz , John Bawer , Jerry Martin

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 31, 1967
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze
• Spectators: approx. 10,000

The training for the opening jump was characterized by difficult conditions, especially in the run, so that almost half of the jumpers fell. GDR athlete Josef Tonhauser even had to go to hospital with a concussion. In the jumping itself, co-favorite Dieter Neuendorf was able to prevail with a margin of just 0.8 points in good external conditions. After the first round, the eventual winner of the day was still in fourth place, last year's winner Wirkola only in seventh place. The only nineteen-year-old Norwegian Tomtum led the field, but slipped into sixth after a weaker second run. After Neuendorf was able to catch the Norwegian Grini with the second best daily distance of 77.5 m, it was enough for Wirkola with the daily best distance of 78 m for third place. However, Neuendorf and Wirkola only separated 1.1 points. In the phalanx of at least five Norwegians and three jumpers from the GDR among the top ten, only fellow favorite Jiri Raska and the Finnish old master Veikko Kankkonen were able to penetrate.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Dieter Neuendorf	GDR	223.0
02	Lars Grini	Norway	222.2
03	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	221.9
04th	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	218.8
05	Roland Jensen	Norway	218.6
06th	Bent Tomtum	Norway	215.8
07th	Manfred Queck	GDR	214.2
08th	Per Bjørnstad	Norway	214.1
09	Wolfgang Stöhr	GDR	210.8
10	Veikko Kankkonen	Finland	210.6

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 1, 1968
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill
• Spectators: 10,000

The New Year's competition was the expected three-way fight after the first round; Wirkola led in front of Neuendorf and Raska. In the second round, Neuendorf offered 89.5 m, which Wirkola countered with the new hill record of 92.5 m. Raska jumped 91.5 m, but still reached into the snow after landing and thus fell back in the daily standings and thus also in the overall standings. A laughing third was the Austrian Reinhold Bachler, who was able to improve and, after finishing second in the previous year, fought for a podium again in Garmisch. In the overall standings, Wirkola was able to extend his lead over Neuendorf to almost 10 points, with the Norwegian Grini taking third place.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Wirkola	458.1
02.	Neuendorf	448.2
03.	Grini	432.0

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	236.2
02	Dieter Neuendorf	GDR	225.2
03	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	218.4
04th	Bent Tomtum	Norway	215.5
05	Ladislav Divila	Czechoslovakia	213.2
06th	Lars Grini	Norway	209.8
07th	Zbyněk Hubač	Czechoslovakia	209.1
08th	Jozef Kocyan	Poland	207.7
09	Horst Queck	GDR	207.2
10	Gilbert Poirot	France	206.9

innsbruck

• Date: January 6, 1968
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump

The hour of the Soviet jumpers struck on the Bergisel. After the weather changed the night before the competition, a thaw set in, which slowed down the inrun. Only jumpers with good jumping ability were required and jumpers from the Soviet Union were among them. The team, which had been beaten up until then, managed to place five jumpers in the top ten after the first round. At that time, it led Pyotr Kovalenko ahead of Wirkola, Raska and 19-year-old Napalkow. With Wolfgang Stöhr (6th), Dieter Neuendorf (7th) and Heinz Schmidt (10th), three GDR jumpers completed the field of ten. In the second round, Kowalenko could not stand his jump, but Napalkow was able to snatch victory away from Wirkola with the best distance of 91 m of the day. The co-favorites Neuendorf and Raska lost further points in the overall standings to Wirkola, so that the Norwegian had the overall victory in mind after three competitions almost unassailable.

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Wirkola	679.0
02.	Neuendorf	656.0
03.	Grini	638.7

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	222.5
02	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	220.9
03	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	215.5
04th	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	212.7
05	Dieter Neuendorf	GDR	207.8
06th	Bent Tomtum	Norway	207.7
07th	Lars Grini	Norway	206.7
08th	Wolfgang Stöhr	GDR	205.0
09	Ryszard Witke	Poland	203.1
10	Heinz Schmidt	GDR	200.1

Bischofshofen

The Czechoslovak Jiri Raska was the measure of all things in the last competition. In the first round he had already laid the foundation for the day's victory with the daily best distance of 98.5 m. The good overall performance of the Czechoslovaks was rounded off by Hubac with 3rd place and Motejlek with 5th place. The Soviet jumpers also brought another athlete to the podium in Scheglanov. Innsbruck winner Napalkow, still promisingly in fifth place after round one, missed his chances of a podium with a poor second jump like so many other jumpers. Dieter Neuendorf already showed nerves in the first run and ended up in eighth place together with the Austrian Bachler. The surprise of the day, however, was the Hungarian Laszlos Geller, who achieved the best daily result of a Hungarian jumper with tenth place.

• Date: January 7th, 1968
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
• Spectators: 6000

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	215.9
02	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	201.4
03	Zbyněk Hubač	Czechoslovakia	199.8
04th	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	197.8
05	Dalibor Motejlek	Czechoslovakia	197.1
06th	Baldur Preiml	Austria	196.9
07th	Manfred Queck	GDR	195.0
08th	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	192.9
	Dieter Neuendorf	GDR	192.9
10	László Gellér	Hungary	192.8

Tour final score

After Wirkola's second tour victory was confirmed by Innsbruck at the latest, Bischofshofen could only be about the further podium places. In addition, the Norwegian Grini, who had been third up until then, was unable to start after a shoulder bruise in the last competition. Since Raska made up more than 20 points on Neuendorf in his day's victory, he managed to relegate the GDR jumper to third place in the end. With a podium place in Garmisch, where Raska fell far back from a grip in the snow, he could have contested the tour victory against Wirkola under certain circumstances. Even the Soviet Innsbruck winner Napalkow would have been a candidate for the podium if he had better placements, especially in the first competitions. Above all, however, the 46th place in Garmisch only allowed him to come in sixth. Björn Wirkola could celebrate his second tour victory, Bent Tomtum confirmed the strength of the Norwegians with fourth place. The Czechoslovak team, which was the only 3 jumpers to make it into the top ten, also made a very strong impression. This impression was confirmed shortly afterwards with Raska's Olympic victory on the normal hill. After finishing second and third in previous years, Dieter Neuendorf failed to succeed on tour again. In addition to him, Wolfgang Stöhr in particular made a positive impression, who achieved his best tour result with seventh place. At that time, no one could have suspected that Neuendorf would not return to the jumping circuit after a serious knee injury that he had suffered during a mat jump run in the autumn of 1968.

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Garmisch- Partenk.-	Inns- bruck	Episcopate hofen
01	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	876.8	221.9 / 03.	236.2 / 01.	220.9 / 02.	197.8 / 04.
02	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	851.8	218.8 / 04.	201.6 / 21	215.5 / 03.	215.9 / 01.
03	Dieter Neuendorf	GDR	848.9	223.0 / 01.	225.2 / 02.	207.8 / 05.	192.9 / 08.
04th	Bent Tomtum	Norway	822.3	215.8 / 06.	215.5 / 04.	207.7 / 06.	183.8 / 21.
05	Zbyněk Hubač	Czechoslovakia	817.0	208.5 / 11.	209.1 / 08.	199.6 / 11.	199.8 / 03.
06th	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	807.8	204.8 / 000	191.1 / 46.	222.5 / 01.	189.4 / 13.
07th	Wolfgang Stöhr	GDR	804.5	210.8 / 09.	201.8 / 20.	205.0 / 08.	186.9 / 15.
08th	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	803.0	183.0 / 000	205.9 / 12.	212.7 / 04.	201.4 / 02.
09	Dalibor Motejlek	Czechoslovakia	799.4	204.7 / 000	200.3 / 24.	197.3 / 16.	197.1 / 05.
10	Ryszard Witke	Poland	790.7	203.6 / 000	193.2 / 39.	203.1 / 09.	190.8 / 11.

Individual evidence

1. ^ FIS: Results Oberstdorf, December 30, 1967 (accessed January 24, 2009)
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 1, 1968 p. 7
3. ↑ FIS: Results Garmisch-Partenkirchen, January 1, 1968 (accessed on January 24, 2009)
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 2, 1968 p. 5
5. ^ FIS: Results Innsbruck, January 6, 1968 (accessed January 24, 2009)
6. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 7, 1968 p. 6
7. ↑ ^{a b} Neues Deutschland from January 8, 1968 p. 5
8. ↑ FIS: Results Bischofshofen, January 7, 1968 (accessed January 24, 2009)
9. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of January 22, 1969 p. 11