Dawid Kubacki takes it all in Klingenthal
Oct 02, 2022·Ski Jumping
Dawid Kubacki won the final competition of the FIS Grand Prix 2022 in Klingenthal (GER). In an exciting competition, he finished ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan and Norway's Daniel Andre Tande.
Poland's Dawid Kubacki had already almost secured the overall title of the Grand Prix 2022 before the final competition, but the way the 32-year-old claimed today's win and the overall crown was incredibly impressive despite the already high expectations.
Round 1 with less value in the second half
Due to the heavy rain and the changing winds, it was a turbulent first round, various top athletes had no chance to show good jumps, so the athletes who came out on top all jumped in the first part of the first round, with only one exception: Dawid Kubacki. The Pole once again presented himself in outstanding shape.
Manuel Fettner, who jumped right before Kubacki, was only 37th and so the overall ranking of the Grand Prix was decided after the first round. Fettner was the only one who still had a theoretical chance to take the title. The conditions in the second round were good and once again, Dawid Kubacki was the best athlete.
"The conditions in the first round were quite tricky, the wind conditions were changing a lot and it was challenging to jump well when you don't know what you'll get after the take-off. My first jump wasn't perfect, I didn't jump as far as I would have wanted, but I wasn't too far behind the best two guys. I also made some mistakes in the second round, but the energy was really good and I'm happy it was good enough to win. I'm expecting to jump even better in winter, there's still a month of training and I'm convinced I'll use the time wisely. I want to compete on the highest level also in winter", said Kubacki.
Timi Zajc was the best Slovene in fourth, and Andreas Wellinger was happy about his fifth place. “The first round was turbulent, the conditions were better in the second round and my jump was also better than the first one. I could move up a few places and I'm really satisfied with the result today", Wellinger said after the competition.
Robert Johansson, Halvor Egner Granerud, and Marius Lindvik came in sixth, eighth, and ninth and completed a top team result for Norway.
Setback for Italian team
With Giovanni Bresadola, Alex Insam, and Francesco Cecon all three Italians failed to make the cut for the final round, but the team of head coach David Jiroutek also didn't have luck with the conditions. Especially Bresadola and Insam had to jump during a period of heavy rain and changing conditions. But the Italians are on the right track and so they might be able to fight for top results in the upcoming winter.
Kubacki equals Harada, Morgenstern, and Malysz
Dawid Kubacki won the overall title of the FIS Grand Prix 2022 ahead of Manuel Fettner (AUT) and Kamil Stoch (POL), who could not compete in Klingenthal due to sickness. It was the third time that Kuback won this title, only Masahiko Harada (JPN), Thomas Morgenstern (AUT), and Adam Malysz did this before.
Counting summer 2020, when Kubacki also scored the most points, but there was no official overall ranking due to Covid, Kubacki is the only one with four titles. Kubacki is an outstanding athlete, especially in summer.
The world's best ski jumpers now start their final phase of preparation before the World Cup starts on November 5th and 6th in Wisla (POL). Due to the soccer World Cup, the season starts earlier this year and this means that it will be the first World Cup where the athletes land on plastic mats. There will be an ice track in the inrun, but the landing area will be the same as during the summer season in order to save energy and cut costs by avoiding the production of artificial snow in early November.
