Nordic World Ski Championships

Ski jumping: Men’s team competition LIVE from 17:05

Maximilian Ortner, Jan Hörl, Daniel Tschofenig and Stefan Kraft at the award ceremony.(Bild: AFP/JONATHAN NACKSTRAND)

The ÖSV ski jumpers did not convert their position as favorites in the World Championship team competition into gold, but did win silver in Trondheim. Daniel Tschofenig, Maximilian Ortner, Stefan Kraft and Jan Hörl were beaten by Slovenia by 13.4 points on Thursday.

Bronze went to Norway just 2.1 points behind the red-white-red eagles. The ÖSV quartet secured Austria's sixth medal at these World Championships, and there are still some chances for the first gold until Sunday. 

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

"Of course we went in as favorites and would have liked to go home with gold. But to be honest: you have to kiss the silver medal goodbye," said Tschofenig, emphasizing that they had won silver and not lost gold. "On the whole, we can be satisfied." Like his renowned colleagues Kraft and Hörl, the World Cup leader did not show such outstanding jumps as he did over long stretches of the red-white-red World Cup season.

Max Ortner(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Slovenians without a slip-up
Austria only held a wafer-thin lead after the first of a total of eight jumps, after which the Slovenians took the lead and never relinquished it with a varying margin. In the end, the ÖSV eagles even came close to silver, as normal hill world champion Marius Lindvik worked his magic for Norway, but Hörl saved second place with a sufficiently good jump. The Slovenian defending champions did not slip up at the end either. "We would never have thought that after this start to the season, we are very happy. Austria was the favorite, but we really showed very good jumps," said Domen Prevc.

Stefan Kraft(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

World Championship debutant Ortner delivers
Kraft emphasized that they should also be happy about second place. "You have to win a medal first, we have to stay on the ground. Of course we wanted gold, but the Slovenians jumped themselves into a frenzy, nobody made a mistake. But I'm very happy and hope that the whole team isn't disappointed with silver. You have to win a silver first," said Kraft after his 15th World Championship medal and regretted the less than ideal course of events. "The competition never tipped in our direction. It wasn't meant to be. We had a solid competition."

The strong jumping World Championship debutant Ortner won his first World Championship medal. "That's very emotional. Really cool, my first World Championship medal. They were two very solid jumps, I'm very satisfied, I made a good contribution to the silver medal," said the Carinthian.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Congratulations to Slovenia
Final jumper Hörl won his third medal in Trondheim after bronze from the normal hill and in the mixed. "We can be very happy that we have silver. It's another medal for me, which is very nice. It was basically a good performance, you have to take your hat off to the Slovenians," said Hörl, but was not entirely happy with his performance. "Unfortunately, I didn't show the best jumps."

Ski jumping, men, team competition: 
1st Slovenia 1,080.8 points (Lovro Kos 128.5/129.5, Domen Prevc 135.0/135.5, Timi Zajc 136.5/128.0, Anze Lanisek 137.0/138.0) - 2nd Austria 1.067.4 (Daniel Tschofenig 127.0/133.0, Maximilian Ortner 130.5/134.5, Stefan Kraft 134.0/131.0, Jan Hörl 129.5/135.0) - 3rd Norway 1,065.3 (Johann Andre Forfang 128.5/137.5, Robin Pedersen 123.5/130.0, Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal 124.5/134.5, Marius Lindvik 137.5/138.5)