Austria falters, Slovenia wins World Cup ski jumping team event

The Slovenian ski jumping team proudly stand atop the podium after their World Cup victory.

/AP

ZAKOPANE, Poland (AP) -- Slovenia surprisingly won a ski jumping World Cup team event Friday, capitalizing on a late mistake by host Poland and sub-par performances from the usual favorites.

The Polish team led for most of the competition until Krzysztof Mietus had a disappointing second jump in the second-to-last round. The Slovenian team of Yurij Tepes, Robert Kranjec, Yaka Hvala and Peter Prevc took full advantage, finishing with 963.5 points for the victory. Poland was second with 954.4, while favorite Austria came in third with 931.1 points.

Austria was without Gregor Schlierenzauer, the overall World Cup leader and Four Hills champion, who has a cold.

Austria still leads the Cup of Nations with 2,850 points, while Germany is second with 2,626 and Norway is third with 2,352. The Norwegians had a disappointing day and finished seventh after Tom Hilde struggled with his second jump and managed only 90 meters on the large hill.