Ski Jumping: Fast Bredesen reaction

Espen Bredesen, twice the world champion and favoured to lift at least one gold medal for the hosts at the Lillehammer Olympic Games, responded to his defeat by Jens Weissflog at Oberstdorf last week with a hill record at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the second leg of the Four Hills tournament to reduce the German's lead in the World Cup to 15 points. 'I couldn't have jumped any farther today,' Bredesen said after a graceful 111 metres in the air in a light, wet snow. The leap upstaged Weissflog, who had himself improved the hill mark to 110m minutes before the Norwegian took his second jump. Weissflog had broken Bredesen's hill record in Oberstdorf. They take their rivalry to Innsbruck for the third leg of the series on Tuesday, with the final segment to follow at another Austrian venue, Bischofshofen.