After a couple of months with no competition for the top jumpers the 13th edition of the FIS Summer-Grand-Prix is now about to start with an individual event in Hinterzarten (GER) on Saturday. “This year’s Grand-Prix takes place against a background of change”, said FIS Race-director Walter Hofer and adds that “there are new coaches in some countries and we will also notice a change of generation in different teams.“ Last summer’s overall winner, Jakub Janda (CZE) has a new coach with Austrian Richard Schallert and he mentioned that his best athlete is already in good shape. Also Lars Bystøl (NOR) is looking forward to competing. "I never invested so much in a summer preparation. I feel that I made a step forward. We get new suits this week and I hope it'll work well from the beginning", he told. Thomas Morgernstern (AUT) can not take part in the first competitions because of his injury but he plans his comeback in Zakopane. Finland’s Janne Ahonen will also not come to Germany. The 29-year-old has not decided yet where he will participate this summer. For the first time there will be an overall ranking, called the 4-Nations-Grand Prix, for the competitions in Hinterzarten, Einsiedeln, Courchevel and Zakopane. The winner will get gold ingots worth about SFR 12 000.

Janne Ahonen won the first event of the Finlandia Tour in Lahti on July 22 with a total of 247.0 points (96.5/93.5m). Janne Happonen jumped 92 m and 94 m and finished second only 2,4 points behind. Tami Kiuru landed on the third place with 91.5 m and 93.5 m for 239.5 points. Matti Hautamäki came in fifth, followed by his brother Jussi as sixth. The second competition of this series this Tuesday in Kuopio was won by Happonen (124.5m/122.5m; 247.6 pts.) ahead of the Norwegians Anders Jacobsen (123m/122.5m; 242.9 pts.) and Roar Ljøkelsøy (124.5m/120m; 242.1 pts.). The places four to seven also went to the team of Mika Kojonkoski with Tom Hilde (224.7 pts.), Sigurd Pettersen (224.5 pts.), Lars Bystøl (221.7 pts.) and Björn Einer Romøren (220.2 pts.). Matti Hautamäki won the final event of the Tour in Vuokatti today with jumps of 99.5 m and 99 m (269.5 pts.). The other two spots on the podium were taken by Veli-Matti Lindström with 252.0 points (98m/94.5m) and Kalle Keituri (91.5m/96m; 246.0 pts.). Janne Ahonen did not take part in the last two competitions and instead pursuided his Drag-Racing career. The Top 10 in the overall ranking are Janne Happonen, Matti Hautamäki, Tami Kiuru, Jens Salumäe, Harri Olli, Kalle Keituri, Jussi Hautamäki, Risto Jussilainen, Kimmo Yliriesto and Veli-Matti Lindström.

For some of the Finnish jumpers the preparation for next season was a bit difficult recently. “We have had some problems with the lift in Kuopio and we have jumped only twice so far. In the camp of the B- team we weren´t able to jump either because of strong winds” Arttu Lappi told ski-jumping.net. “In Rovaniemi we were training a couple of times but there I concentrated more on physics. Because I have done only 30 jumps so far this summer, it might be too early to say anything about my shape in jumping but my physical shape is looking good right now.” The 22-year-old also expressed his views of last winter, that didn't went as good as he wanted. “I had quite big expectations for the last winter which seemed to be a bit too optimistic for the first season after an injury. Anyway I´m happy that at least I was at the level where I was able to fight for the top positions in the COC. A third place was my best result there and in the Finnish championships I was 8th twice.” About his goals for the summer season Lappi said that “I want to get into good shape and stay healthy. This year I want to start the season on snow better than in the previous years. I don´t take too much pressure now in the summer time but of course I would like to jump well.”

Germany’s Michael Uhrmann suffered an injury in training last week. The 28-year-old tore a ligament in his left ankle joint and although the doctors have decided against surgery he will have to take a break of four to six weeks. “It is not so bad. I will change my training plan to stay fit. I am confident, that I’ll be able to jump again in a few weeks”, he said.
The Italian skijumping team of the new head coach and former world-class jumper Roberto Cecon, who followed Hannu Lepistö in this position, is training at home in Predazzo right now for a couple of days. The athletes who work with Cecon there are Marco Beltrame, Alessio Bolognani, Stefano Chiapolino, Sebastian Colloredo and Andrea Morassi.
The US women skijumpers are of course very happy with the decision of the FIS to include the sport in the program of the Nordic Championships. "For us, it's definitely more of a drive. We've always been really dedicated athletes, but now there's something behind really pushing us. We have even more of a desire and drive” said Alissa Johnson, the sister of the 2006 Olympican Anders Johnson. Since the women are now also part of the US ski team they will get more support from the official side, especially in sport science told their coach Casey Colby.

Austrian youngster Thomas Morgenstern injured himself during the physical training last week. A computed tomography showed yesterday that he tore his intraarticular ligament in his right ankle joint. According to the doctors the double Olympic champion from Torino will be forced to take a break for about six to eight weeks. “An injury is of course always a bad thing, but at least I have a lot of other things to do at the moment” said the 19-year-old who now wants to focus on finishing his school and taking the final exams.
The FIS Nordic World Cup Organizers’ Meeting took place in Rust (GER) last weekend. There Representatives of over thirty organizers of World-Cup, Grand-Prix and Continental-Cup events met to share experiences and dicuss with various companies and the media. At this meeting also an innovation for the upcoming season was presented. Starting with the 2006/07 season a “Man of the Day” will receive an extra prize money of € 2000 (sponsored by “Manner”) at every World-Cup event. This award will go to the best ranked athlete of the competition who is not among the Top 15 in the overall World-Cup ranking.