December 30, 2011 (Oberstdorf, Germany) – Austrian super star Gregor Schlierenzauer took the win tonight, and lead an Austrian ski jumping sweep of the podium in the first event in the 60th edition of the prestigious Four Hills competition before a massive crowd of an estimated 6,500 in this winter wonderland in the German Alps.

The 21-year-old Schlierenzauer claimed his first-ever Four Hills win, to the delight of the Austrian fans that made the trek to Germany. The well known jump here, the Schattenbergschanze has a K point at 120m and is a HS 137m jump. The hill record, set back in 2003, is 143.5 meters held by Norwegian Sigurd Pettersen

In one of the most watched and highly rated television shows broadcast across Europe, (and on-line on Universal Sports), Schlierenzauer took the win with a whopping jump in the final round of 137.5 meters, and total points of 283.3. That was enough for victory, but the Austrian flyboys didn’t stop there.

Second place on the night jump was Andreas Kofler with 265.2 total points. Kofler showed the fans a jump of beauty in the trial round soaring 142 meters. Third went to Thomas Morgenstern with 264.3 points. The competition started and then was stopped, and restarted by officials due to a heavy snowfall and changing winds, in all taking three and a half hours to complete.

Schlierenzauer had praise for the officials following the tournament. “What a day for me. I want to thank the jury for making a decision in favor of the athletes and gave us all a second chance. The was in the sense of the sport. That it, then had such a happy ending for me is great and gives me self-confidence for the upcoming competitions,” he said.

The Germans – in force with spectators at home – did have some solid performances to cheer for, with Severin Freund missing the podium by just 0.9 points, and with Stephan Hocke taking eighth and Richard Freitag in 10th. That’s solid with three German jumpers in the top 10.

It was a fine night for Daiki Ito of Japan in fifth, while Norwegian Anders Bardal lead the Norges in sixth. It was a tough evening for another Norwegian, Tom Hilde, the winner in the qualification jump with a 133m flight, and a seriously talented flyer… he crashed on the landing hill of the huge jump, at high speed and plowed into the new snow. It is not known if he will jump in the second of the Four Hills Tournee events which will be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on New Year’s day.

Swiss ski jumper and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Simon Ammann, did not enjoy a strong night of jumping, as he is suffering from the flu, to finish in 12th.