Four Hills Tournament 1969/70

18th Four Hills Tournament
winner
Tour winner	Horst Queck
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Gari Napalkov
Oberstdorf	Jiří Raška
innsbruck	Bjørn Wirkola
Bischofshofen	Jiří Raška
Attendees
Nations	17 ( AUT , CAN , FIN , FRA , FRG , GDR , HUN , ITA , JPN , NOR , POL , SWE , SUI , TCH , URS , USA , YUG )
athlete	99
← 1968/69	1970/71 →

At the 18th Four Hills Tournament 1969/70 the jumping took place in Oberstdorf on December 28th, on January 1st the jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and on January 4th the jumping in Innsbruck followed . The event in Bischofshofen took place on January 6th. Horst Queck from the GDR won the tour without even winning a single competition.

Nominee athletes

As in previous years, the tour was the first indicator of the 1970 season, which culminated in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Štrbské Pleso in Czechoslovakia . However, the Winter Olympics , which took place for the first time in Asia in Sapporo , Japan , were already casting their shadows. For the first time a larger Japanese team took part in the tour, which also caused one or two surprises during the course of the competition. The favorites again included the Norwegians around the triple winner Wirkola, who had other top jumpers at the start with Grini, Tomtum and Mork. In addition, there were teams from Czechoslovakia around Jiří Raška and from the Soviet Union around Olympic champion Belousov. The expectations of the host teams were rather subdued. Even the expectations of the GDR selection were not overburdened after the performance on the previous year's tour, especially since the ski flying world record holder Manfred Wolf and the experienced Wolfgang Stöhr had to do without due to injuries. At the GDR representation, which with the exception of Christian Kiehl from SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal consisted only of jumpers from SC Motor Zella-Mehlis , even after a Christmas competition in Oberhof, no top jumper had emerged. The 18-year-old Hans-Georg Aschenbach made his debut.

nation	Athletes
BR Germany	Walter Lampe , Henrik Ohlmeyer , Günther Göllner , Friedhelm Klapproth , Oswald Schinze , Alfred Grosche , Alfred Winkler , Ralph Pöhland , Sepp Schwinghammer , Heini Ihle , Ernst Wursthorn , Peter Dubb , Lothar Lottes , Wilhelm Haydt
GDR	Rainer Schmidt , Clemens Walther , Heinz Schmidt , Horst Queck , Christian Kiehl , Jürgen Dommerich , Hans-Georg Aschenbach
Austria	Max Golser , Willy Schuster , Reinhold Bachler , Ernst Kröll , Franz Salhofer , Sepp Lichtenegger , Erich Schwabl , Helmut Diess , Ernst Wimmer , Siegfried Scheutz , Walter Habersatter
Finland	Rauli Tupurainen , Juhani Putkonen , Tauno Käyhkö
France	Alain Macle , Gilbert Poirot , James Yerrly
Italy	Mario Cecon , Albino Bazzana , Giacomo Aimoni , Bruno Patti
Japan	Takashi Fujisawa , Yukio Kasaya , Masakatsu Asari , Nobukazu Saitō , Kinuo Watanabe
Yugoslavia	Janez Jurman , Peter Štefančič , Marjan Mesec , Ludvik Zajc , Branko Dolhar
Canada	Pat Morris , Ulf Kvendbo
Norway	Björn Wirkola , Lars Grini , Bent Tomtum , Ingolf Mork , Frithjof Prydz
Poland	Ryszard Witke , Andrzej Sztolf , Tadeusz Pawlusiak , Stanisław Gąsienica Daniel , Józef Przybyła , Stanisław Kubica , Jan Bieniek
Sweden	Eilert Mäler , Lars Ström , Karl-Erik Johansson
Switzerland	Hans Schmid , Sepp Zehnder , Richard Pfiffner , Walter Steiner
Soviet Union	Vladimir Belousov , Alexander Ivannikov , Gari Napalkow , Anatoli Scheglanow , Vladimir Smirnow , Vladimir Galkin
Czechoslovakia	Jiří Raška , Rudolf Höhnl , Zbyněk Hubač , Josef Matouš , Karel Kodejška , František Rydval , Rudolf Doubek
Hungary	László Gellér , Mihály Gellér , Gyula Molnar
United States	Bruce Jennings , Bill Bakke , Jerry Martin , Adrian Watt , Greg Swor , Ken Harkins , Georg Krog , Tim Denisson , Dave Norby

Oberstdorf

• Date: December 28, 1969
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Schattenbergschanze

On the rebuilt Oberstdorf hill, the take-off table and the hill profile had been changed, there was a not necessarily expected winner of the day; Gari Napalkow from the Soviet Union. With clean jumps of 79.5 and 80 m, he relegated Horst Queck to second place. With the daily maximum distance of 82m, this wrested the silver rank from the Czechoslovakian Matouš. In a tight decision, triple winner Wirkola finished fifth, but only four points behind the winner of the day. After the Japanese Kasaya had already flown 86m in the trial run, his compatriot Fujisawa surprised the experts with eighth place. With Raška, Grini and the new Norwegian talent Mork, other favorites for the overall victory ended up in the top ten. From a GDR perspective, the performance with three jumpers in the top ten was also very gratifying. However, for the talent Aschenbach from the GDR and the now West German jumper Ralph Pöhland, the tour was already over after falling: both had to be hospitalized with suspected concussions.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	225.7
02	Horst Queck	GDR	223.8
03	Josef Matouš	Czechoslovakia	223.3
04th	Lars Grini	Norway	222.9
05	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	221.3
06th	Christian Kiehl	GDR	218.2
07th	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	215.3
08th	Takashi Fujisawa	Japan	213.9
09	Ingolf Mork	Norway	213.8
10	Clemens Walther	GDR	213.4

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Date: January 1, 1970
• Country: BR Germany 
• Hill: Large Olympic hill

Jiří Raška won the New Year's competition with the greatest distance in both rounds of 92.5 and 92m. Behind him, Scheglanow and Belousov, two Soviet jumpers came in, whose team, in Ivanikov, was able to bring another jumper into the top ten. Above all, Belousov's third place was all the more remarkable because he was 92nd in the opening competition after two falls. These inconsistencies generally marked the second competition. Last year's winner Wirkola only came in 16th and the winner from Oberstdorf Napalkow even came in 18th. Thus, after two competitions, two Czechoslovak jumpers took the lead in the overall standings, followed by the most consistent Norwegian Grini. With two top ten placements, the GDR representatives Horst Queck and Christian Kiehl did not necessarily follow in the next places. Co-favorite Wirkola came in seventh. The sometimes close gaps showed, however, that nothing had yet been decided in the race for overall victory.

Intermediate result after 2 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Raška	456.7
02.	Matouš	450.4
03.	Grini	450.0
04th	Queck	445.2
05.	Kiehl	443.7
06th	Napalkov	443.1
07th	Wirkola	439.8
08th.	Mork	434.4

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	241.4
02	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	233.2
03	Vladimir Belousov	Soviet Union	230.2
04th	Lars Grini	Norway	227.1
04th	Josef Matouš	Czechoslovakia	227.1
06th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	226.1
07th	Christian Kiehl	GDR	225.5
08th	Stanisław Gąsienica Daniel	Poland	223.8
09	Alexander Ivannikov	Soviet Union	222.8
10	Horst Queck	GDR	221.4

innsbruck

• Date: January 4, 1970
• Country: Austria 
• Ski jump: Bergisel ski jump

As so often, a preliminary decision was made on the Bergisel hill. In addition, there was a competition that could hardly be surpassed in terms of drama, which shook up the overall ranking again. When the cold wind set in, which made the track freeze, there were rows of favorites falls because the jumpers could not stand their distance. Overall leader Raška fell at 97m, Christian Kiehl at 96m. In contrast to Wirkola, who stood his 98m safely. Horst Queck went one better with a standing 99m and thus a new hill record in the first round. His lead was only 0.4 points ahead of the Norwegian due to the slightly poorer posture marks. After the jury shortened the run-up for the second round, the distances fell by an average of several meters. Since Wirkola also jumped the best distance in the second round with 92.5m, he was sure to win the day because Queck landed a meter shorter. With two consistent jumps, Heinz and Rainer Schmidt were also able to land in the top ten and thus moved up a lot in the overall standings. With seventh place, the Austrian Bachler achieved a respectable individual placement for his team for a long time. In the overall ranking, the most consistent jumper was suddenly in front, Horst Queck. Although he had not yet won a competition, he was the only one to land in the top ten in all three competitions. However, only 2.9 points separated him from Wirkola, who could justifiably hope for his fourth tour victory.

Intermediate result after 3 jumps
Item	Jumper	Points
01.	Queck	691.2
02.	Wirkola	688.3
03.	Napalkov	675.2
04th	Raška	659.8
05.	Scheglanov	658.2
06th	R. Schmidt	657.4
07th	H. Schmidt	657.0
08th.	Grini	648.0

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	248.5
02	Horst Queck	GDR	246.0
03	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	237.8
04th	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	232.1
05	Heinz Schmidt	GDR	227.6
06th	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	225.8
07th	Reinhold Bachler	Austria	224.8
08th	Stanislaw Pawlusiak	Poland	216.2
09	Hans Schmid	Switzerland	212.0
10	Alfred Grosche	BR Germany	211.8

Bischofshofen

• Date: January 6, 1970
• Country: Austria 
• Hill: Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze

The eagerly awaited final competition started in the worst possible conditions. The thaw and rain made it impossible to train in advance, so only one trial run was scheduled before the jump. In a close decision, first and fourth place differed by just 3.2 points, the already beaten co-favorite Raška prevailed, who jumped the daily best distance of 104 m in the first round. His worst competitor this time, however, was somewhat surprisingly the GDR representative Rainer Schmidt, who only lost 2.5 points in jumps of 100.5 and 101 m due to poor posture marks. In the duel of the leaders in the overall standings, Wirkola was only able to make up a minimum of 0.1 points on Queck, whereby the GDR jumper surprisingly got the better grades compared to the Norwegian. With Asari in tenth place, another Japanese put another warning sign.

Item	Jumper	country	Points
01	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	235.4
02	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	232.9
03	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	232.3
04th	Horst Queck	GDR	232.2
05	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	226.3
06th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	225.2
07th	Alexander Ivannikov	Soviet Union	223.3
08th	Ingolf Mork	Norway	218.3
09	Frithjof Prydz	Norway	216.0
10	Masakatsu Asari	Japan	215.6

Total status

Horst Queck

Seldom has a jumping been so exciting until the last competition in Bischofshofen. With Horst Queck, the most consistent jumper finally prevailed with just 2.8 points ahead of the three-time winner Wirkola. Queck was the only jumper to land in the top ten in every competition. However, his victory was also favored by outliers in the competition, so Scheglanow in Garmisch and Raska in Innsbruck lost their chances of overall victory. With the three jumpers in the top ten of the overall ranking and the first tour victory after Helmut Recknagel in 1961, the GDR team ultimately achieved a result that nobody had expected before the tour. Co-favorite Raška had to wait for the overall victory again. With tenth place overall, the Japanese Kasaya indicated his future potential. At the subsequent Nordic World Ski Championships he was already runner-up on the normal hill, while the third of the tour, Gari Napalkow, was double world champion. Wirkola and Queck had nothing to do with the championship outcome.

rank	Surname	nation	Overall rating	Colonel village	Garmisch- Partenk.	Inns- Bruckhaus	Episcopate hofen
01	Horst Queck	GDR	923.4	223.8 / 02.	221.4 / 10.	246.0 / 02.	232.2 / 04.
02	Bjørn Wirkola	Norway	920.6	221.3 / 05.	218.5 / 16.	248.5 / 01.	232.3 / 03.
03	Gari Napalkov	Soviet Union	901.5	225.7 / 01.	217.4 / 18.	232.1 / 04.	226.3 / 05.
04th	Jiří Raška	Czechoslovakia	895.2	215.3 / 07.	241.4 / 01.	203.1 / 23.	235.4 / 01.
05	Rainer Schmidt	GDR	890.3	211.4 / 14.	220.2 / 14.	225.8 / 06.	232.9 / 02.
06th	Rudolf Höhnl	Czechoslovakia	870.3	208.1 / 20.	226.1 / 06.	210.4 / 10.	225.2 / 06.
07th	Anatoly Scheglanov	Soviet Union	867.7	187.2 / 53.	233.2 / 02.	237.8 / 03.	209.5 / 14.
08th	Ingolf Mork	Norway	860.4	213.8 / 09.	220.6 / 13.	207.7 / 17.	218.3 / 08.
09	Heinz Schmidt	GDR	860.0	210.3 / 17.	215.1 / 15.	227.6 / 05.	203.0 / 24.
10	Yukio Kasaya	Japan	852.2	211.8 / 12.	216.1 / 20.	208.8 / 15.	215.5 / 11.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wirkola: "I will not be the winner" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 30, 1969, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ^ New Germany of December 29, 1969 p. 7
3. ↑ Raska, Scheglanow, Grini, Wirkola . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 3, 1970, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 2, 1970 p. 8
5. ↑ Before the duel between Queck and Wirkola . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 6, 1970, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 5, 1970 p. 7
7. ↑ ^{a b} Circle of World Cup contenders? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 8, 1970, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
8. ↑ Neues Deutschland from January 7, 1970 p. 5
9. ↑ [1]
10. ↑ [2]
11. ↑ [3]
12. ↑ [4]