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Flawless Norway retain ski jumping team world title – Metro US

Flawless Norway retain ski jumping team world title

OBERSDORF, GERMANY (Reuters) – World ski jumping champions Norway won their second successive men’s team title after effervescent performances by individual gold medalist Daniel Andre Tande and compatriot Andreas Stjernen on Sunday.

Stjernen produced the day’s longest jump of 231 meters and Tande, who was victorious in the individual event on Saturday, steered the four-man team with a pair of solid flights as Norway blew away the field.

Slovenia finished second for their first team medal and Poland came third in the eight-team competition.

With distance and style marks from the judges determining the tally, Norway finished with 1662.2 points, ahead of Slovenia (1,615.8)and Poland (1592.1) who snatched the bronze medal ahead of hosts Germany.

Missing out on a podium finish in the team competition compounded Germany’s threadbare weekend as they only had Richard Freitag’s bronze medal in the individual event to cheer with Poland’s Kamil Stoch finishing second.

The double joy was a boost for Norway ahead of the upcoming Feb. 9-25 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with the Germans now facing a difficult task to defend their title from the high-flying Scandinavians.

(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade; Editing by Toby Davis)