World champions Austria cruise to second gold of season

WORLD champions Austria confirmed their status as overwhelming favourites to strike team gold in Vancouver with their second win of the season in Oberstdorf, Germany.

OLYMPIC FAVOURITES: Normal hill world champion Wolfgang Loitzl and his Austrian teammates cruised to their second team World Cup gold of the season in Oberstdorf (Getty Images)

The quartet of Martin Koch, Andreas Kofler, Wolfgang Loitzl and Gregor Schlierenzauer occupy four of the top nine places in this season's World Cup standings.

And despite a below-par second performance from ski flying world champion Schlierenzauer, the Austrians cruised to gold in Oberstdorf, finishing with 1560.4 points.

Norway, who finished second behind Austria at last February's World Championships in Liberec, scored 1539.2 to claim silver while Finland scored their second bronze of the season on 1505.3.

Germany, who collected silver at the only other team event of the season in Kuusamo in November, failed to hit top gear in front of their home crowd and slumped to fourth.

The individual event takes place on Sunday in Oberstdorf.