PREDAZZO, Italy, Feb 16 (Reuters) - 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 and Norway 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.
"It was so important for Team Austria, with the last 10 days (being) so hard, so this was the last chance," Embacher told Reuters.
For Daniel Forfang, who took bronze along with teammate Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal, the medal provided an emotional moment as he lost his father shortly before the Games began.
"I gave him that promise that I will give it a fair fight, and to stand there now with a medal, it's very special to me, and yeah, it's definitely for my dad," he said.
FIS DEFENDS DECISION
During the third round, heavy snow began to fall inPredazzo, 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.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund and Liz Hampton in Predazzo, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Christian Radnedge)
