The 52nd edition of the annual Four Hills Tournament was held in the traditional venues: Oberstorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, and Innsbruck and Bischofshofen in Austria.
Format
At each of the four events, a qualification round was held. The 50 best jumpers qualified for the competition. The fifteen athletes leading the World Cup at the time qualified automatically. In case of an omitted qualification or a result that would normally result in elimination, they would instead qualify as 50th.
Unlike the procedure at normal World Cup events, the 50 qualified athletes were paired up for the first round of the final event, with the winner proceeding to the second round. The rounds start with the duel between #26 and #25 from the qualification round, followed by #27 vs #24, up to #50 vs #1. The five best duel losers, so-called 'Lucky Losers' also proceed.
For the tournament ranking, the total points earned from each jump are added together. The World Cup points collected during the four events are disregarded in this ranking.
Pre-Tournament World Cup Standings
At the time of the tournament, eight out of twenty-eight events were supposed to be completed, but three were cancelled.
The standings were as follows:
Rank Name Points 1. Roar Ljøkelsøy 288 2. Janne Ahonen 268 3. Adam Małysz 240 4. Sigurd Pettersen 206 5. Tami Kiuru 176 Veli-Matti Lindström 176 7. Sven Hannawald 172 8. Matti Hautamäki 158 9. Bjørn Einar Romøren 145 10. Andreas Widhölzl 133
Participating nations and athletes
The number of jumpers a nation was allowed to nominate was dependent on previous results. In Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, the amount of Austrian athletes was doubled.
The defending champion was Janne Ahonen. Six other competitors had also previously won the Four Hills tournament: Andreas Goldberger in 1992-93 and 1994–95, Primož Peterka in 1996-97, Kazuyoshi Funaki in 1997-98, Andreas Widhölzl in 1999-00, Adam Małysz in 2000-01 and Sven Hannawald in 2001-02.
The following athletes were nominated:
Nation Starting Spots Number of Athletes Athletes 8 8 Sven Hannawald, Michael Uhrmann, Maximilian Mechler, Georg Spaeth, Martin Schmitt, Stephan Hocke, Alexander Herr, Jörg Ritzerfeld 8 + 8 16 Martin Höllwarth, Andreas Widhölzl, Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Goldberger, Andreas Kofler, Florian Liegl, Reinhard Schwarzenberger, Martin KochNational Group: Wolfgang Loitzl, Stefan Kaiser, Roland Müller, Mathias Hafele, Stefan Thurnbichler, Manuel Fettner, Christian Nagiller, Balthasar Schneider 2 2 Maksim Anisimov, Dimitri Afanasenko (Oberstorf only) 2 2 Li Yang (Garmisch-Partenkirchen onward), Tian Zhandong (Garmisch-Partenkirchen onward) 3 3 Jakub Janda (until Innsbruck), Jan Matura (until Innsbruck), Michal Doležal (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen) 2 2 Jens Salumäe, Jaan Jüris 8 8 Janne Ahonen, Tami Kiuru, Veli-Matti Lindström, Matti Hautamäki, Akseli Kokkonen, Jussi Hautamäki, Arttu Lappi (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Janne Happonen (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen) 2 2 Emmanuel Chedal, Nicolas Dessum 3 3 Alessio Bolognani (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only), Giancarlo Adami (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only), Stefano Chiapolino (Garmisch-Partenkirchen only) 5 5 Noriaki Kasai, Hiroki Yamada, Hideharu Miyahira, Kazuyoshi Funaki, Akira Higashi 2 2 Radik Zhaparov, Asan Tahtahunov 1 1 Christoph Kreuzer (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen) 8 8 Roar Ljøkelsøy, Sigurd Pettersen, Bjørn Einar Romøren, Tommy Ingebrigtsen, Anders Bardal, Henning Stensrud, Morten Solem, Lars Bystøl 3 4 Adam Małysz, Wojciech Tajner, Tomisław Tajner (until Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Marcin Bachleda (Innsbruck onward) 2 4 Denis Kornilov (Oberstorf and Bischofshofen), Dmitry Ipatov (Oberstorf and Bischofshofen), Alexei Silaev (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck), Dmitri Vassiliev (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck) 1 1 Martin Mesík 5 5 Peter Žonta, Rok Benkovič, Robert Kranjec, Damjan Fras, Primož Peterka 1 1 Kang Chil-ku 2 3 Johan Erikson, Andreas Arén (until Innsbruck), Isak Grimholm (Bischofshofen only) 2 2 Andreas Küttel, Simon Ammann 2 2 Clint Jones, Brian Welch (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Bischofshofen)
Results
Oberstorf Schattenbergschanze, Oberstorf 28-29 December 2003
Jumping 133.0 meters, Sigurd Pettersen was already in the lead after the first round. During the rest of the tournament, only Martin Höllwarth equalled this distance. In the last jump, Pettersen then soared to 143.5 meters, setting a new hill record and securing his victory.
Qualification winner: Sigurd Pettersen
Rank Name Points1 Sigurd Pettersen295.22 Thomas Morgenstern272.73 Martin Höllwarth269.14 Michael Uhrmann267.95 Noriaki Kasai261.86 Rok Benkovič261.67 Georg Spaeth261.38 Tommy Ingebrigtsen260.29 Adam Małysz254.4 Roar Ljøkelsøy254.4
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Große Olympiaschanze, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 31 December 2003 - 1 January 2004
Qualification winner: Janne Ahonen
Rank Name Points1 Sigurd Pettersen253.82 Martin Höllwarth253.13 Georg Spaeth248.74 Janne Ahonen248.55 Peter Žonta241.26 Noriaki Kasai239.87 Michael Uhrmann238.68 Thomas Morgenstern233.79 Sven Hannawald231.910 Veli-Matti Lindström230.8
Innsbruck Bergiselschanze, Innsbruck 03-4 January 2004
Aged 24, Slovenian jumper Peter Žonta celebrated the first and only World Cup victory of his career in Innsbruck. Runners-up Lindström, for whom two second places were career bests, was denied this honour.
Qualification winner: Janne Ahonen
Rank Name Points1 Peter Žonta265.22 Veli-Matti Lindström253.93 Janne Ahonen253.84 Sigurd Pettersen251.85 Martin Höllwarth251.76 Noriaki Kasai249.57 Thomas Morgenstern247.68 Lars Bystøl245.79 Sven Hannawald244.410 Georg Spaeth242.6
Bischofshofen Paul-Ausserleitner-Schanze, Bischofshofen 05-6 January 2004
Qualification winner: Andreas Küttel
Rank Name Points1 Sigurd Pettersen265.82 Peter Žonta263.43 Janne Ahonen261.34 Thomas Morgenstern258.95 Martin Höllwarth257.66 Georg Spaeth257.27 Veli-Matti Lindström256.18 Matti Hautamäki251.79 Michael Uhrmann250.210 Roar Ljøkelsøy247.1
Final ranking
Rank Name Oberstorf Garmisch-Partenkirchen Innsbruck Bischofshofen Points1 Sigurd Pettersen1st1st4th1st1066.62 Martin Höllwarth3rd2nd5th5th1031.53 Peter Žonta11th5th1st2nd1023.64 Thomas Morgenstern2nd8th7th4th1012.95 Janne Ahonen13th4th3rd3rd1012.66 Georg Spaeth7th3rd10th6th1009.87 Michael Uhrmann4th7th11th9th998.78 Noriaki Kasai5th6th6th11th996.59 Roar Ljøkelsøy9th14th19th10th956.510 Lars Bystøl21st11th8th13th952.6
References
External links FIS website Four Hills Tournament web site