RASCHAU/BISCHOFSHOFEN, 24 June 2013 – The 2013 Four Hills Tournament for Children, which takes place for the 15th time this year, has reached half-time. The stations in Hinzenbach and Bischofshofen were successfully completed during the last two weekends.

“As in the past years, we are very pleased with the encouragement coming from the different associations both at home and abroad”, says tour coordinator Wolfgang Roithner. “150, 160 participants from four countries were participating in Austria. They came from Hungary, Romania, Germany, and, of course, Austria. Turkey has also shown interest but in the end, did not take part – but who knows; maybe their jumpers will be there for the second part.” Regarding the number of participants, the event is reaching the limits of feasibility. “We are able to pull through this event which takes approximately five hours, not least thanks to the electronic distance measurement – this is a real blessing to us.”

The fact that Thomas Morgenstern, a current star of the Austrian Ski Federation, attended the youngster’s tour in Bischofshofen made Roithner and Peter Riedel very happy – the specialist regarding inrun technology personally attended the competition in the province of Salzburg. “The emotional support of an Olympic champion, world champion, tour champion, and overall worldcup winner is of the utmost importance to our event. His presence also attracts the media and the public learns that ski jumping is possible even at younger ages”, says Wolfgang Roithner.

“Young athletes are and have always been very important to me”, explained Peter Riedel, who used to be the president of the ASC Oberwiesenthal and who campaigned especially for the promotion of young talent in the alpine field in this capacity. Therefore, his commitment for the Four Hills Tournament for Children is easy to understand. Peter Riedel GmbH and its partner REHAU, world-leading fabricator of plastics, are the main sponsors of the youngster’s tour events this year.

“At the same time, the event in Bischofshofen provided the opportunity to get in contact with Thomas Morgenstern”, explained Riedel. “We exchanged our opinions and ideas regarding the further development of ski jumping inruns, and I am delighted that we were able to have a very positive discussion. The feedback of the athletes, the most important protagonists of the scene, has the greatest value to me. ”

The Four Hills Tournament for Children with participating boys and girls between the ages 7 to 11 will finish in September with competitions in Reit im Winkl (14 September) and Berchtesgaden (21 September).