Brilliant Austria win men's ski super team gold after snow disrupted competition

Updated
Austria's Jan Hoerl in action during the final round
Austria's Jan Hoerl in action during the final roundReuters / Kacper Pempel

Austria ‌won ‌the gold medal ‌in the ‌men's super ⁠team event ‌in ​ski jumping at ​the Winter Olympics on ⁠Monday ​in a chaotic competition ‌where snow stopped the third round from being completed.

Poland claimed silver while ‌Norway took ​bronze.

The gold brought huge ​relief for Austria, which has a rich ​ski jumping tradition, claiming a first medal in ⁠the ​event in these Games thanks to jumpers Stephan Embacher and Jan Hoerl.

As the ‌final six jumpers prepared to compete, heavy snow began to fall in Predazzo, making it increasingly difficult to clear the hill after each jump and causing repeated delays.

With conditions deteriorating further, ​and three of eight competitors left to jump, officials decided to abandon the third round and ⁠declare the second ​round results as final.

International Ski and Snowboard Federation race director Sandro Pertile defended the decision to end the competition prematurely.

“We had this sudden, ‌heavy snowfall, wet snowfall, and we were trying to clean the track, but we saw immediately that we lost the speed in the in-run," he said.

“We also had completely different wind conditions. The wind was starting from behind, into a head wind, and with these conditions it was really unfair to continue. We have ‌in our rules the possibility to cancel ​the round. Sometimes this happens, and it ‌was happening tonight.”

The super team competition made its Olympic debut at these Games.

Each nation fielded two jumpers, with each athlete taking two jumps per round and the winners decided ⁠by the highest ⁠accumulated score.