Sports Betting Articles
Review of the Four Hills Tournament
By Emeli Dean
Everything started in 1951 when the three skiing clubs from Innsbruck, Bischofshofen and Partenkirchen had the idea of an international tournament to distinguish the ski jumping in Europe after the Second World War. At the night jumping in May 1952 from the ski jump at the "Seegrube" the three clubs decided about a firm program for the season 1952/53. This day is officially called the day of foundation of the German-Austrian jumper tournament. With these three clubs there were three locations for the tournament already, two in Austria and one in Germany. To build a balance between the German and Austrian venues the organizers started looking for a fourth location in Germany, whereby Oberstdorf was chosen. The functionaries from Oberstdorf could already give proof of their organizing talent at a couple of ski flying weeks the past two years.
The Norwegian Asefeir Doelplads was the first winner of the first Tournament day. The first winner of the overall ranking of all four days was the Austrian Josef Bradl, also known as Sepp "Bubi" Bradl. Sepp Bradl who was born in 1918 in the Free State Bavaria was the first ski jumper who succeeded to jump over 100 meters in 1936. There were a total of around 20,000 spectators to follow the first Four Hills Tournament. Participants were next to the hosts Germany and Austria, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The season 2007/08 converted unintended into a Three Hills Tournament since the jumping in Innsbruck unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the bad weather. A strong foreign wind rendered the realization of the jumping impossible for the organizers. "The adverse weather conditions did not allow letting the competitors jump. “We don’t have a Four Hills Tournament anymore but after all we still have a Four Jumping Tournament” said Walter Hofer, the racing director from the international Skiing Club Fis. The hosts were dismayed about the first cancellation in the Tournament History in 55 years. "This is frustrating, the heart really hurts. It is as if Christmas would be cancelled for the kids" stated Toni Innauer, the director of the Austrian skiing club. To prevent a repetition of this misfortune, the club plans to install a wind net and floodlights in the future to arrange the jumping in the night. Innauer said: "Normally the weather is quieter in the nights. To position a wind net perfectly; it requires longstanding measurements and simulations. But, if there is a foreign wind coming as strong as this year we won’t have a chance neither.”
The jumping has been transferred to Bischofshofen, where also the final took place. With 1085.8 points the Fin Janne Ahonen could achieve his fifth tournament victory. With this he goes down in history as the record holder. Before he had to share this title with the 30-year-old German Jens Weißflog. The runners-up spot goes to the Austrian Thomas Morgenstern followed by the German person on whom hopes are pinned Michael Neumayer. He could achieve the fantastic third place due to the outage from Simon Ammann, Tom Hilde and the 17-year- old Tyrolese Georg Schlierenzauer. To his victory Neumayer commented: "I can’t believe that I am placed third. This was an emotional roller coaster. After a totally funky jumping I am standing on the stairs. "Amazing!"
About the Author
Emeli Dean is a high-ranking writer on sports for the
football betting industry. You can also find more of his work at http: http://www.instantactionsports.com
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