Large Hill, Team, Men

Austria had eclipsed the Scandinavian nations at the 2005 World Championships and the success of Thomas Morgenstern and Andreas Kofler in individual competition gave a strong signal that they would provide the quartet to beat in the team event through the Finns and Norwegians also had strength in depth. A superb effort by Kofler ensured that Austria had a narrow lead over Finland after round one with a Norwegian team, held back by a poor leap from Tommy Ingebrigtsen, a little further back in third. Austria maintained this lead throughout the second round and the title was sealed by Thomas Morgenstern, who flew out to 140.5 m in the final jump of the competition. Norway’s hopes of gold were wrecked by a second poor leap by Ingebridtsen and they finished behind Finland in third. If pre-2002 rules had been in operation and only the three best jumps of each round had counted for a team then Norway would have snatched the gold medal by a fraction of a point. Last of the sixteen nations some way adrift of the rest were the débutants from the People’s Republic of China.