Akseli “Axu” Kokkonen

Today the first FIS Continental Cup competition in this season took place in Velenje, Slovenia at HS 94.
The show began with the official training at 16:00. Akseli Kokkonen came in 2th with 86,5 m behind Marcin Bachleda with 89,0 m. During pleasant 24°C air temperature and a partly cloudy sky, Akseli left out the second training jump.

The trial round at the Grajski Gric hill took place at 20:00. Akseli captured with a jump of 88,5 m from gate 4 the 9th place.

The competition finally started at 21:30 and Akseli was the best skijumper after the first round. With a speed of 82,6 for 91,0 m, he relegated Lukas Hlava and Primoz Pikl to the ranks. After the final round, Akseli left 2 meters to the leader Primoz Pikl and even his good points for performance (fives times 18,5) couldn’t help him to keep the first place. In the end, he came in 3rd after Pikl and Kranjec.

After all a very successfull comeback of the new Norwegian citizen!

1. Primoz Pikl + Robert Kranjec
3. Akseli Kokkonen

According to www.berkutschi.com, Akseli will also take part in Villach’s COC competitions in Austria. You can see him on the starting list. 

Quotes from Berkutschi’s article:

“I don’t have my ID card yet, but that will only take a couple of days until it’s printed.”

“Because I never stopped training over the last years I’m in a good physical shape. During summer I will only work on my technique, like I always did so far.”

Akseli celebrates his first victory as a Norwegian citizen and beats Norway’s elite skijumpers. Norway’s summer trial competition called “testrenn” took place in Örnsköldsvik/Sweden during trainings camp. With jumps of 100,5 m and 101,5 m, Akseli set a new hill record  and won with 4 points ahead of Kenneth Gangnes and 15,5 points to Tom Hilde. Whereas he placed 4th after the first instance because of weak style, he was clearly the best jumper both in style and lenght in the second round.

“The most important thing was that it was a Norwegian who won.”

1. Akseli Kokkonen
2. Kenneth Gangnes
3. Tom Hilde

“I tried to make it easy today and to jump stable. I managed it, and in addition, I was probably lucky with the conditions. It was very fun.”

According to his coach Jermund Lunder, Akseli is a great talent, out of question. He has a unique jump hight during tests compared with the Norwegian guys. It is a result of training condition in Finland, and something that the Norwegian’s are trying to improve in Norway too. Akseli still has to improve his technique, but he provits very much of his fantastic physics. In addition he is a happy boy who does not rack his brain for a lot of things. He can probably be very good if he manages to develop his technique moreover.