Austria’s Hayboeck tops qualifiers in men’s large hill
Krasnaya Polyana, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) – Austria’s Michael Hayboeck led all qualifiers in the men’s large hill event at the Sochi Olympics.
Hayboeck had the longest jump at 131.0 meters and totaled 124.8 points to top a pair of Japanese jumpers. Daiki Ito was second with 122.0 points, followed by countrymate Reruhi Shimizu at 120.4 points.
Austria’s Thomas Morgenstern also qualified for Saturday’s final rounds with a score of 116.0 points. Morgenstern, who was 14th in the normal hill last Sunday, is competing after suffering head and lung injuries in a crash last month.
The top 10 in the world were pre-qualified into Saturday’s competition, including four-time gold medal winner Simon Ammann of Switzerland and last week’s normal hill gold medal winner Kamil Stoch of Poland. Stoch did not make an attempt on Friday.
A total of 40 jumpers earned spots in Saturday’s round, including Americans Nicholas Alexander, Nicholas Fairall and Anders Johnson. Peter Frenette failed to qualify.
Categorized in: Olympics