July 20, 2008 (Lahti, Finland) – Some 11‚000 fans wished farewell to Janne Ahonen in his home town of Lahti (FIN) last Thursday. The 15-strong starting field of the invitational Ski Jumping competition held at the Lahti ski stadium read like a who-is-who of the international Ski Jumping elite. As in high number of the other competitions in his 26-year-career, Ahonen won the last competition, held on the very same hill where it all started years ago.

He posted the longest jumps in both rounds and received full 20 points from the five jumping judges, all his previous coaches from Kari Ylianttila to Kari Pätäri, Mika Kojonkoski, Hannu Lepistö and Tommi Nikunen. Ahonen triumphed 16 points ahead of his long-time challenger Adam Malysz who was followed by Georg Späth, Andreas Küttel and Martin Schmitt, just to mention a few.

Ahonen’s mother Maarit Ahonen joined her son in the tower for the first time in his career. “It surely felt strange at the bar up there – for the last time,” he commented.

The 31-year-old champion will be concentrating on spending time with his family, now with son Mico and a new-born, his sporting goods export business and working as the jumping suit expert for the Finnish Ski Jumping team.