Team Austria defended their FIS Ski Flying World Championship title with a comfortable victory in Vikersund, Norway.

Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Martin Koch leapt home with a combined 1648.4 points – 23.2 ahead of nearest challengers Germany.

Andreas Wank, Richard Freitag, Maximilian Mechler and Severin Freund will not be too downhearted though after jumping to their best ever team finish.

Slovenia’s quartet Jernej Damjan, Jurij Tepes, Jure Sinkovec and Robert Kranjec will also be delighted after picking up their first ever individual team medal with a score of 1580.4.

Norway narrowly missed out on the medals and were 38.2 further adrift, while Japan finished fifth on 1472.9.

Sportsbeat / Eurosport