March 17, 2007 – Try and explain to Slovenian athletes that in Italy there is a saying that goes like that: “no man is a prophet in his own country”. They will stare at you in disbelief, in particular after the team jump trial of the world championships which took place today in Planica and that allowed them to win a gold medal.

Hrgota, Roglic, Tepes, Meznar have grown up in Planica ski-jump, where today’s competition took place. This must have helped them, indeed, but the greatest gift came from the most long awaited team, the one which was supposed to rule: Austria. But Andreas Strolz’s disqualification came as a surprise. His skis where 1cm longer and therefore not allowed.

A petition was filed immediately, but with no results. The disqualification is confirmed and excludes the team from the competition. After the first jumps, Japan with Tochimoto (silver medal) took the lead with Chonan, Harada and Ito.

These athletes are followed by Slovenia and Germany (Schoft, Bodmer, Horlacher, Wank). Italy in 9th position with Liva, Morassi, de Crignis e Dellasega, was the first country to be excluded from the final round. The Austrian team ended up at place # 11.

In the final jumps, Slovenia with Hrgota were not in a good position (6th), whereas the best jump came from Czech athlete Roman Koudelka (gold medal two days ago). Things were not better for the Japanese jumpers with Chonan and Harada who achieved worse results, losing their lead.

In the end Slovenia triumphed at home, with a 35-point lead over Japan. Finland’s recovery was commendable. The Finnish athletes exploited the difficulties they faced from the last two German jumpers ending up with in third place, eight points away from the bronze medal. Germany took fourth place.