Daniel Andre Tande is Ski Flying World Champion

Daniel Andre Tande of Norway is the new Ski Flying World Champion. After only one round on Saturday, the 23-year-old crowned himself the new champion with a 200 m jump. Poland's Kamil Stoch and Richard Freitag of Germany came in second and third.

Like already on the day before, the conditions were once again difficult on the Heini-Klopfer-Ski Flying hill in Oberstdorf and so the jury had to decide to cancel the fourth competition round due to wind gusts of up to 8 m/s. "It was too dangerous, in these conditions the safety of the athletes could not be guaranteed", explained the FIS technical delegate, Bertil Palsrud of Norway.

With this decision, the fight for the World Championship title was over after the first three rounds (two on Friday, one on Saturday). "Honestly, I don't know how to describe what I'm feeling right now. It's definitely a dream come true for me. The waiting before the fourth round was different than in any other competition because it was about the final jump. I just tried to stay focused", said Tande, who was overwhelmed after winning his first big international title. Tande is the third Norwegian Ski Flying World Champion. Before him, Roar Ljoekelsoey (2004, 2006) and Ole Gunnar Fidjestoel won the title for Norway.

The second place went to Kamil Stoch of Poland, who managed to come in ahead of Richard Freitag with the best jump of the day (211.5 m). "It's difficult to say if it was more stressful to wait or to jump today. I tried not to think about that, I just tried to stay focused and concentrated on what I had to do. I wanted to make one more jump because I love Ski Flying. It's always a bit strange when you get the information that the final round is canceled because you can't be that happy without the adrenaline from the jump. But it's nice anyway", Kamil Stoch said after the competition.

Richard Freitag finished third with his jump of 190.5 m: "Everything happened so fast, this is incredible. A big thank you to all the people who came out here and created such a fantastic atmosphere. I'm not thinking about the bad conditions in the third round anymore, tomorrow is a new day. Now I try to let everything sink in and enjoy the atmosphere. Tomorrow is the team competition, so the party tonight won't be that long", said Freitag.

Austria's Stefan Kraft came in fourth. "I tried everything I could and I was really fighting. All of my jumps were good, I just didn't have a fantastic one. The three guys were simply better today, I don't have to be upset now, the result is okay the way it is", said Kraft, who won both World Cup competitions here in Oberstdorf a year ago.

Andreas Stjernen, Peter Prevc, and Andreas Wellinger showed strong performances as well and finished fifth, sixth and seventh.

The arena at the Heini-Klopfer-hill was sold out with 25 000 fans and they all got their money's worth, despite the cancellation of one round.

The team competition in Oberstdorf is held on Sunday at 4 pm CET.