Kamil Stoch the best in the qualification
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
Poland's Kamil Stoch won the first qualification of the RAW AIR 2018 on the Holmenkollen in Oslo. With the longest jump of the qualification (131 m; 143.2 points) the overall World Cup leader also took the lead in the RAW AIR standing. The second and third place went to Norway's Robert Johansson (130.5 m; 137.0 points) and Richard Freitag of Germany (130 m; 135.1 points).
The 2nd edition of the RAW AIR started on Friday evening with the qualification in Oslo. Top favorite Kamil Stoch had a perfect start in this event has a lead of 6.2 points after the first of ten competition days. Robert Johansson and Richard Freitag also showed strong performances on day one of the RAW AIR. In very good conditions on the traditional Holmenkollenbakken in Oslo, these three athletes have already shown in training that they can do well on this hill in these conditions.
Johann Andre Forfang of Norway and Poland's Dawid Kubacki followed behind Freitag in fourth and fifth. Andreas Stjernen was the third-best Norwegian in sixth and underlined the ambitions of the hosts in Saturday's team event. With Daniel Andre Tande, Marius Lindvik and Halvor Egner Granerud, three more Norwegians received top results in 10th, 11th and 12th.
Andreas Wellinger came in seventh, followed by last year's RAW AIR winner Stefan Kraft of Austria. Markus Eisenbichler finished 14th, Constantin Schmid was 16th and put some pressure on teammate Stephan Leyhe and head coach Werner Schuster.
The first event in Oslo will be a team competition on Saturday (5 pm CET), the individual competition follows on Sunday at 2:20 pm CET.
The favorites of Norway will be represented by Daniel Andre Tande, Andreas Stjernen, Johann Andre Forfang and Robert Johansson on Saturday. Besides quali-winner Kamil Stoch, Maciej Kot, Stefan Hula, and Dawid Kubacki were named to the Polish team. The German team will be the same as last weekend when they won in Lahti: Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler, Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger. Gregor Schlierenzauer, Clemens Aigner, Michael Hayboeck and Stefan Kraft will compete for Austria.
Already before the first event, the athletes praised the great job of the organizers of the RAW AIR. After the two competitions in Oslo, the athletes will travel to Lillehammer on Sunday evening, where the qualification and an individual competition will be held on Monday and Tuesday. After another stop in Trondheim, the final will take place on the Ski Flying hill in Vikersund.
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