Ski jumping World Cup champion Freund wins weather-affected event in Lillehammer

Severin Freund of Germany took victory in a weather-affected event in Lillehammer ©FIS

Reigning overall International Ski Federation (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup champion Severin Freund of Germany picked up his first win of the season as he narrowly took gold ahead of home favourite Kenneth Gangnes in Lillehammer today.

Owing to blustery weather in the Norwegian resort, competition was switched from the large to the normal hill and finals came after the qualification round took place, which was due to be held yesterday but was postponed due to strong winds.

The tricky conditions also meant only one jump was possible for each competitor and Freund, individual large hill world champion, was able to leap 94.5 metres to finish on a total of 129.7 points.

That proved enough to secure the title as his score was 0.1 better than Gangnes, who had to settle for silver, while fellow Norwegian Andreas Stjernen claimed bronze.

The result saw defending champion Freund surge to the top of the overall leaderboard on 160, 20 in front of Norway’s Daniel-Andre Tande.

Gangnes, whose second-place finish handed him a maiden individual World Cup medal, is third on 104.

Home favourite Kenneth Gangnes claimed his best-ever result as he took silver ©Getty Images

“You had to speculate a bit about when to go to the start, so you're not up there too early,” Freund said.

“It was a long day, we started early with the training round.

“Of course such conditions get annoying, but there's nothing you can do about the weather and I'm happy that we had a competition today.

“I'm also very happy, that the guys of our team, who had problems in Klingenthal, scored good points today.”

The qualification round took a record 127 minutes as organisers struggled with the strong wind conditions in Lillehammer, which staged the 1994 Winter Olympic Games and is due to host the Winter Youth Olympic Games in February.

The final phase provided a thrilling finale to a weather-disrupted event as Freund pipped Gangnes, who recorded a decent effort of 95.5m, to victory in the second men’s individual event of the campaign.

“This second place feels like a win for me,” Gangnes said.

“I've never achieved such a good result before.”

Action in Lillehammer is due to continue with the second round tomorrow.