Ammann chasing second medal

Ammann is preparing to thrill the crowds once more Keystone

Swiss Olympic hero Simon Ammann will be looking to win his second medal of the Salt Lake City Games on Wednesday after another strong performance in Tuesday's big hill qualifying session.

Already guaranteed a place in Wednesday’s final thanks to his World Cup ranking, Ammann recorded the 13th best qualifying jump but with enough in reserve to put him among the likely medal contenders.

On Sunday, Ammann stunned the sporting world by beating hot favourites Sven Hannawald and Adam Malysz to the gold medal in the normal hill jump. Now the 20-year-old from canton St Gallen is eager to prove his performance was no fluke.

“The two (qualifying) jumps weren’t super”, said the overnight star after jumping 121.5 metres in his warm-up and 119.5 metres in the qualifying jump proper. “But I was a little early with my landing and certainly didn’t realise my full potential.

“If I can prepare as well as I did before the normal hill final, I’ll definitely be in the running,” Ammann added confidently.

Four Swiss through

Ammann will be joined in the final by Swiss team-mates Andreas Kuettel, Sylvain Freiholz and Marco Steinauer who all made it through the qualifying with varying degrees of difficulty.

Kuettel was the most impressive of the three, securing 14th place immediately behind Ammann. Freiholz recorded the 40th best jump of the day, while Steinauer just squeezed into the 50-strong final field after finishing the qualifying in 49th place.

swissinfo with agencies