Finnish ski jumper Anssi Koivuranta won his first World Cup round Saturday at the Four Hills tournament in Innsbruck, as the event had to be cut short due to strong winds.
With nine jumpers still due to compete - including tournament favourites - the jury decided to stop proceedings, cancelling the second and final round.
This left Koivuranta, 25, an Olympic bronze medallist in nordic combined, to grab his first World Cup podium and win in ski jumping.
With a jump of 132.5 metres, he grabbed 127.5 points, ahead of Swiss four-time Olympic champion Simon Ammann with 126.3 points and current World Cup leader Kamil Stoch of Poland with 126.2 points.
But this makes little difference to the Four Hills standings, with new Austrian wonder Thomas Diethart, 21, still in the lead.
The youngster, who was fifth on Saturday, remains a firm favourite to win the tournament after shooting to the top of the rankings in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in only his sixth World Cup outing.
Ammann moves up one rank into second place, ahead of 2011 Four Hills winner Thomas Morgenstern of Austria, who finished eighth in Innsbruck.
The Austrians are defending a five-year winning streak at the Four Hills but face a strong challenge from Ammann, who has made it clear he wants to win the four-leg tournament at last, having accumulated almost every other trophy and medal.
The third leg of the prestigious Four Hills tournament was long in doubt following forecasts of winds reaching up to 100 kilometres per hour.
Windy conditions can be dangerous for the jumpers, who race down an icy track at around 90 kilometres per hour before hurtling through the air.
The jumping still went ahead but with several pauses and with some athletes, including Austria's Wolfgang Loitzl and Czech Republic's Lukas Hlava, having to battle their way down.
In the final round, Russia's Denis Kornilov crashed after slipping on the landing but quickly got up and seemed uninjured.
The Four Hills tournament now moves on to Bischofshofen for the fourth leg, with a qualifying round on Sunday and the final jumps planned for Monday.
Share
