2002–03 Four Hills Tournament

The 51st edition of the annual Four Hills Tournament was held in the traditional venues: Oberstorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, and Innsbruck and Bischofshofen in Austria. The defending champion was Sven Hannawald. After being the first ski jumper to win on all four hills in the previous year, he also won the first event of 2003-04. This fifth consecutive victory at a Four Hills tournament equalized a record set by Helmut Recknagel in the late 1950s. Kamil Stoch achieved the same feat in 2018.

Four Hills Tournament
at the 2002-03 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
VenuesSchattenbergschanze, Große Olympiaschanze, Bergiselschanze, Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze
LocationGermany, Austria
Dates28 December 2002 (2002-12-28) – 6 January 2003 (2003-01-06)
Competitors110 from 20 nations
Medalists
gold medal Finland Janne Ahonen
silver medal Germany Sven Hannawald
bronze medal Poland Adam Małysz

The tournament victor was Janne Ahonen, who had already won the tournament four years prior, and would continue to win it three more times, becoming the most successful athlete of the Four Hills tournament.

Format

At each of the four events, a qualification round was held. The 50 best jumpers qualified for the competition. The fifteen athletes leading the World Cup at the time qualified automatically. In case of an omitted qualification or a result that would normally result in elimination, they would instead qualify as 50th.

Unlike the procedure at normal World Cup events, the 50 qualified athletes were paired up for the first round of the final event, with the winner proceeding to the second round. The rounds start with the duel between #26 and #25 from the qualification round, followed by #27 vs #24, up to #50 vs #1. The five best duel losers, so-called 'Lucky Losers' also proceed.

For the tournament ranking, the total points earned from each jump are added together. The World Cup points collected during the four events are disregarded in this ranking.

Pre-Tournament World Cup Standings

At the time of the tournament, eight out of twenty-eight events were already held.

The standings were as follows:[1]

RankNamePoints
01.Austria Martin Höllwarth469
02.Finland Janne Ahonen427
03.Austria Andreas Widhölzl405
04.Norway Sigurd Pettersen396
05.Poland Adam Małysz381
06.Germany Michael Uhrmann320
07.Austria Andreas Goldberger279
08.Slovenia Primož Peterka278
09.Germany Sven Hannawald224
10.Austria Andreas Kofler220
Slovenia Peter Žonta220

Participating nations and athletes

The number of jumpers a nation was allowed to nominate was dependent on previous results. At each event, a 'national group' of ten jumpers from the host country was added.

The defending champion was Sven Hannawald. Six other competitors had also previously won the Four Hills tournament: Andreas Goldberger in 1992-93 and 1994–95, Primož Peterka in 1996-97, Kazuyoshi Funaki in 1997-98, Janne Ahonen in 1998-99, Andreas Widhölzl in 1999-00 and Adam Małysz in 2000-01.

The following athletes were nominated:

NationStarting SpotsNumber of AthletesAthletes
 Germany8+1019Michael Uhrmann, Sven Hannawald, Georg Spaeth, Martin Schmitt, Christof Duffner, Stefan Pieper, Maximilian Mechler, Michael Neumayer (not in Innsbruck), Stephan Hocke (until Innsbruck)
National Group: Alexander Herr, Jörg Ritzerfeld, Kai Bracht, Michael Möllinger, Dirk Else, Ferdinand Bader, Frank Ludwig, Daniel Klausmann, Frank Reichel (Oberstdorf only), Roland Audenrieth (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only)
 Austria8 + 1020Martin Höllwarth, Andreas Widhölzl, Andreas Goldberger, Andreas Kofler, Florian Liegl, Mathias Hafele, Thomas Morgenstern, Martin Koch (until Innsbruck)
National Group: Reinhard Schwarzenberger, Wolfgang Loitzl, Stefan Thurnbichler, Christian Nagiller, Bastian Kaltenböck, Balthasar Schneider, Bernhard Metzler, Stefan Kaiser, Manuel Fettner, Markus Eigentler (Innsbruck only), Stefan Becker (Bischofshofen only), Michael Nagiller (Bischofshofen only)
 Bulgaria11Georgi Zharkov
 Czech Republic34Jakub Janda, Jan Matura, Lukáš Hlava (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Jiří Parma (Innsbruck onward)
 Estonia33Jens Salumäe, Jaan Jüris (not Innsbruck), Jouko Hein (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only)
 Finland88Janne Ahonen, Arttu Lappi, Matti Hautamäki, Tami Kiuru, Akseli Kokkonen, Veli-Matti Lindström, Jussi Hautamäki, Risto Jussilainen
 France33Nicolas Dessum (Innsbruck onward, Emmanuel Chedal (Innsbruck onward, Maxime Remy (Innsbruck only)
 Italy33Roberto Cecon, Alessio Bolgnani, Giancarlo Adami
 Japan55Noriaki Kasai, Kazuyoshi Funaki, Hideharu Miyahira, Hiroki Yamada, Kazuya Yoshioka
 Kazakhstan33Pawel Gaiduk, Stanislav Filimonov, Maxim Polunin
 Netherlands22Ingemar Mayr, Christoph Kreuzer (Innsbruck onward)
 Norway88Sigurd Pettersen, Roar Ljøkelsøy, Bjørn Einar Romøren, Kim-Roar Hansen, Henning Stensrud, Lars Bystøl, Tommy Ingebrigtsen, Anders Bardal
 Poland45Adam Małysz, Marcin Bachleda, Tomasz Pochwała, Tomisław Tajner (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Robert Mateja (Bischofshofen only)
 Russia45Valery Kobelev, Ildar Fatchullin, Ilya Rosliakov, Alexei Silaev (until Innsbruck), Dmitri Vassiliev (Bischofshofen only)
 Slovakia22Martin Mesík, Dušan Oršula
 Slovenia66Primož Peterka, Peter Žonta, Damjan Fras, Robert Kranjec, Igor Medved, Rok Benkovič (Innsbruck onward)
 South Korea44Kim Hyun-ki, Kang Chil-ku, Choi Yong-jik (until Innsbruck), Choi Heung-chul (until Innsbruck)
 Sweden22Kristoffer Jåfs, Isak Grimholm
  Switzerland44Simon Ammann, Andreas Küttel, Marco Steinauer (until Innsbruck), Sylvain Freiholz (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck)
 United States33Alan Alborn, Clint Jones (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Tommy Schwall (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen)

Results

Oberstorf

Germany Schattenbergschanze, Oberstorf
28-29 December 2002

Qualification winner: Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy

RankNamePoints
1Germany Sven Hannawald263.1
2Austria Martin Höllwarth257.7
3Finland Janne Ahonen257.5
4Germany Martin Schmitt252.5
5Austria Andreas Kofler245.1
6Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy243.6
7Slovenia Primož Peterka239.7
8Slovenia Peter Žonta239.0
9Austria Thomas Morgenstern237.4
10Austria Florian Liegl236.8

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Germany Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
31 December 2002 - 1 January 2003

The second event saw three former tournament winners on the podium, two of which have not even placed in the Top Ten in Oberstorf. The first event's winner Sven Hannawald on the other hand, only placed 12th (235.1p).

Qualification winner: Austria Thomas Morgenstern

RankNamePoints
1Slovenia Primož Peterka264.6
2Austria Andreas Goldberger261.1
Poland Adam Małysz261.1
4Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy256.1
5Finland Janne Ahonen255.6
6Switzerland Simon Ammann247.9
7Japan Hideharu Miyahira245.9
8Austria Andreas Kofler245.5
9Austria Andreas Widhölzl239.8
10Austria Martin Höllwarth236.9

Innsbruck

Austria Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck
03-4 January 2003

The jumbled results of the first two events saw Janne Ahonen in the lead after the tournament's first half. With a clear victory in Innsbruck, the Finn increased his lead in the overall ranking to 26.7 points.

Again, the winner of the previous event could not be found in the Top Ten. Peterka placed 15th (198.1p).

Qualification winner: Austria Stefan Thurnbichler

RankNamePoints
1Finland Janne Ahonen227.5
2Austria Florian Liegl218.7
3Austria Martin Höllwarth216.6
4Germany Sven Hannawald215.7
5Austria Andreas Widhölzl214.4
6Poland Adam Małysz211.9
7Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy210.6
8Austria Andreas Goldberger208.4
9Germany Martin Schmitt206.9
10Austria Andreas Kofler204.6

Bischofshofen

Austria Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen
6 January 2003

Due to bad weather, the qualification was postponed to January 6, and instead of Sudden Death match-ups in the first round, the usual World Cup format was used.

The surprise winner was 21-year-old Bjørn Einar Romøren, whose best position during the tournament so far had been a 15th place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was his first World Cup victory.

Janne Ahonen performed two solid jumps and his comfortable lead in the overall ranking was not in danger.

Qualification winner: Austria Thomas Morgenstern

RankNamePoints
1Norway Bjørn Einar Romøren263.1
2Germany Sven Hannawald262.4
Austria Andreas Kofler262.4
4Finland Janne Ahonen259.3
5Norway Sigurd Pettersen257.0
6Austria Thomas Morgenstern255.5
7Poland Adam Małysz253.0
8Slovenia Primož Peterka252.3
9Austria Florian Liegl250.5
10Italy Roberto Cecon248.1

Final ranking
RankNameOberstorfGarmisch-PartenkirchenInnsbruckBischofshofenPoints
1Finland Janne Ahonen3rd5th1st4th999.9
2Germany Sven Hannawald1st12th4th2nd976.3
3Poland Adam Małysz13th2nd6th7th959.7
4Austria Andreas Kofler5th8th10th2nd957.6
5Slovenia Primož Peterka7th1st15th8th954.7
6Norway Roar Ljøkelsøy6th4th7th15th949.3
7Austria Martin Höllwarth2nd10th3rd16th945.6
8Austria Florian Liegl10th17th2nd9th934.2
9Austria Andreas Goldberger14th2nd8th22nd923.0
10Austria Thomas Morgenstern9th25th12th6th912.8

The winner of Bischofshofen, Bjørn Einar Romøren, had failed to proceed to the second round of Oberstorf and only placed 19th overall (801.4p).

References
  1. ""e.on ruhrgas" FIS World Cup Ski-Jumping 2002/2003 World Cup Standings" (PDF). FIS. 2002.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.