COC: Nejc Dezman wins in Erzurum

After a longer break international competitions are being held again in the Ski Jumping center in Erzurum, which had to be reconstructed after a landslide a few years ago. In absence of the athletes from Norway, Austria and Germany, the Slovenian team proved to be unbeatable on the HS 140 on Saturday.

The win went to Nejc Dezman, who was the best already in the first round with 137.5 m. In the final the 24-year-old then jumped even further and had a great jump on 143 m. He took his fourth win in the COC, the first since January 2014, with 269.7 points.

Only 0.4 points behind the winner, his teammate Jaka Hvala finished second. He posted jumps of 133.5 m and 141 m.

Sebastian Colloredo was the only one who could keep up with the strong Slovenes. The Italian landed at 132 m and 137 m and came in third with 253.0 points.

Behind the Top 3, the places four to six also went to Slovenia, with Matjaz Pungertar, Miran Zupancic and Rok Justin. The outstanding result of the team was completed by only 16-year-old Timi Zajc in tenth.

The seventh place went to Finland's Lauri Asikainen, followed by Egor Usachev of Russia. For the 25-year-old from Perm this eighth place was the by far best result of his career. With Janne Korhonen in ninth a second Finn was in the Top 10. He has also never achieved such a good result before in his career.

With his with place today, Miran Zupancic took the lead in the overall ranking with now 545 points. Clemens Aigner is second with 521 points, Nejc Dezman moved up to third with 456 points.