January 15, 2009 – After the Four-Hills-Tournament, the first Ski Flying events were on the schedule in the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup where a small crystal globe will again be awarded for the best ski flyer at the end of the season. The 2008 FIS Ski Flying world champion, 19-year-old Gregor Schlierenzauer (Aut) flew the furthest in both competitions on the Kulm Ski Flying hill in Bad Mitterndorf/Tauplitz (Aut) last weekend. On Saturday he set the new hill record of 215.5 meters in the second round, appropriately celebrated by the huge crowd of tens of thousands of people. With consistently long leaps, the teenager cut Swiss Simon Ammann’s World Cup lead to just 77 points . The World Cup now moves on to Zakopane in Poland from January 15.

The DKB FIS Nordic Combined World Cup continued in Val di Fiemme (Ita). On Saturday, Germany’s Bjoern Kircheisen won the only mass start competition before the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009. One day later, Magnus Moan (Nor) celebrated his 10th World Cup victory in his 100th appearance. With a well balanced jump and solid ten kilometres of cross-country racing, he dominated the podium and was joined by his teammate Jan Schmid who had been 3rd the day before. For Pavel Churavy, a Liberec (Cze) native, 3rd place on Sunday was his 2nd career podium. In the overall World Cup, Anssi Koivuranta (Fin), sidelined due to illness last weekend, remains on top with 643 points, but his margin was halved as Magnus Moan now trails by just 87 points.