NOTEBOOK : Norway Watches Two Gold Medals Slip Away to Foes

Norway has had worse days in the Olympics--Winter and Summer--but it’s doubtful that one ever hurt as much as Tuesday.

Two anticipated gold medals in Nordic skiing quickly turned into a single silver.

Hardly had the Italians beaten Norway’s crack 40-kilometer cross-country relay team when Germany--and Japan and Austria as well--beat the Norwegians in team ski jumping off the 120-meter hill.

Jens Weissflog, the large-hill individual champion, gave Germany the victory with a final jump of 444 feet 6 inches. It was the longest of the day, tied the hill record and gave Germany 970.1 points. Japan was second with 956.9, Austria third with 918.9 and Norway a medal-less fourth with 898.8.

In team competition, four jumpers for each team have two jumps apiece.

Japan appeared to have won its first gold medal of these Games when its last jumper, Masahiko Harada, took his final jump. His team led by 55.1 points and all he needed was an average jump.

Instead, he had a poor one, sailing only 319-9 and offsetting jumps of 442-9 and 436-3 1/2 by Jinya Nishikata and Takanobu Okabe.

Then Weissflog launched his winning effort, and Harada buried his head in his hands. Harada, world champion on the normal hill, had leaped 400-3 1/2 on his first jump.

“I felt the pressure before the last jump and my takeoff was too early,” Harada said.

Joining Weissflog on the German team were Hansjoerg Jaekle, Christof Duffner and Dieter Thoma. When the results were announced they celebrated with a four-man wave.

The United States finished 11th among the 12 teams competing.