Klingenthal, GER

Bischofshofen, GER

Aug. 9, 2005
KLINGENTHAL & BISCHOFSHOFEN, GER

Monday was a day off that required us to drive about 6 hours north to
Klingenthal, GER. Nothing exciting happened while we were on the road, which is a
good thing in my mind. Late in the afternoon we went to see the construction
site that is right in the town of Klingenthal where they are building their
new K-120 jump. It is a great looking hill and a very "space-age" design for
the inrun tower that includes a single support at the back of the tower and
a warming room shaped like a tube that is suspended out into the air,
anchored only on one side.

Tuesday we had a relaxing morning that finished with the annual alpine slide
competition. Like the one that is being built at the ski jumps in Park City
this track is steel, and it is fast. Everyone gets a couple of practice
runs just for fun, then the timing lights get turned on for the official race
times. As bib #1 Lindsey was the first to go. She had a fast time, ultimately
putting her in 6th place, but the real excitement started after she
finished. The temps were chilly, and maybe aided by a little moisture in the air,
caused Lindsey to somehow slide right over the 5 meter section that slows the
sled down. As she approached the 90 degree turn at the bottom of the lift she
was still motoring along at a pretty high rate of speed. As she went
through the corner with far too much speed she, and the sled, was spun and thrown
out of the track onto the wet, slippery muddy grass and rolled down about a 10
feet hill of weeds. After finding that she was relatively unhurt, my
largest regret was having left my position a few minutes too early at the bottom to
video from the top of the track, I missed a golden opportunity to say the
least. In the end, there was a little carnage, but mostly a lot of fun. The
Italians and Americans seem to have the right idea for fast times and
dominated 7 of the top 10 spots.

So then came time to jump. We had 2 official training jumps, then a trial
round, a short break and then the comp started. It was very fair conditions,
almost no wind the entire evening. After the first round things were not
what anyone had expected. During the training jumps 3 of our underdogs showed
some amazing improvement. Atsuko Tanaka, Katie Willis (our two Canadian team
members) and Brenna Ellis. The hard part would be to get them to react the
same in the competition. But almost everything went as we had hoped. After
the first competitive round the result list looked like this:

Leader: Katie Wilis, 4th Atsuko, 5th Brenna, 7th Jessica, 10th Abby, 16th
Lindsey, 19th Alissa.

Lindsey had a crash otherwise she too would have been in the top 8 as well.
The 2nd round started with Lindsey uncorking the longest jump of the
competition at 80 meters, moving her up 10 places to 6th place. Alissa had a strong
jump and moved up, then came the final ten skiers. Abby had a strong jump,
followed by Jessica who took over the lead, and held it for a while. Then
the final 5 skiers made me pretty worried, none of these skiers have been in
this situation before and I was not sure how they would react.

Brenna was first, and she had another very good jump, leaving her just behind
Jessica, who was leading still, with only 4 skiers to go. Atsuko, who had the
3 best jumps I have ever seen her have up to this point in the day, also had
another great jump which placed her between Jess and Brenna. Then Anette
Sagen, 2nd after the first round, had a good jump, just 2 meters short of
Lindseys longest jump of the day, and she took the lead. I turned to look up the
hill and there was Katie, sitting on the bar, the only person on top of the
tower. They gave her the green light and a huge roar came from the crowd,
spurred on by the big brother and her North American teammates. She headed down
the inrun in what appeared to be a relaxed position, this boded well for her.
Katie had a great jump, equaling Lindsey and sharing the longest jump of
the competition at 80 meters. She was mobbed at the bottom of the jump by a
number of athletes from many countries.

So to sum up this amazing day for the underdogs from the west-side of the
Atlantic.

1. Katie Willis
2. Anette Sagen
3. Jessica Jerome
4. Atsuko Tanaka
5. Line Jahr
tied 6 Brenna Ellis & Lindsey Van
8th Abby Hughes

6 of the top 8 were from North America. Amazing.
Nice job Coaches Jindro, Gregor, Damian, Ted and any of those other Canadian
coaches that I am forgetting right now. Congratulations.

Casey Colby