 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
   | 
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Team Austria take ski jumping gold
 Morgenstern claimed his second gold of the Games in the team event PRAGELATO, Italy (Reuters) -- Austria won the Olympic ski jumping team event for the first time on Monday, giving teenager Thomas Morgenstern his second gold of the Torino Games. The Austrians had contested the event at every edition of the Olympics since it was first introduced in 1988 and had won a silver and two bronze medals. Morgenstern sealed victory with a massive final leap of 140.5 meters after the world champions led for most of the event under floodlights on a misty evening in the Italian Alps. The 19-year-old, whose uncle Alois Morgenstern was an Alpine skier at the 1976 Games, had already won Saturday's individual Large Hill event, the first Austrian to do so in 30 years. "My first jump was not as good as it could have been but the second was a golden jump," he said. "It's a dream. Two gold medals within two days." Austria's gold, which came against the backdrop of an extraordinary doping saga involving their Winter Olympic team, also gave Andreas Kofler his second medal of the Games following his silver behind his roommate Morgenstern on Saturday. Matti Hautamaeki, a silver medalist on the smaller of the two hills at Pragelato eight days ago, helped Finland to the silver while Norway took bronze, giving Lars Bystoel his third medal in three events at these Olympics. "The first jump was not that good but the second was perfect," Bystoel said. "I had a great feeling when landing and it's great to see so many Norwegian spectators here, especially my mum and sister." Norway's Roar Ljoekelsoey set a new hill record of 141m with his team's final jump, condemning defending champions Germany to fourth place. Kofler set the Austrians on their way with by far the biggest jump of the first round -- 133.5m. No-one else got within four meters of him. He, Andreas Widhoelzl and Martin Koch then all kept their nerve and produced steady jumps in the final round before Morgenstern's mammoth effort at the end. The Austrians finished the night on 984 points to Finland's 976.6, Norway's 950.1 and Germany's 922.6. The Italians took the unusual step of drafting in a jumper from their Nordic combined team after two of their regular ski jumpers were injured on the eve of the Games. The newcomer, Davide Bresadola, posted a respectable jump of 106m in the first round but the Italians failed to make the cut for the final round and finished 11th. 
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
