Kamil Stoch wins the qualification in Trondheim
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
Poland's Kamil Stoch was the best athlete in today's qualification in Trondheim with a jump of 139 m. Under sometimes chaotic conditions, Stoch came in close ahead of Norway's Andreas Stjernen and Andreas Wellinger of Germany. Wellinger took the lead in the RAW AIR overall ranking of Austria's Stefan Kraft, who became a victim of the conditions today.
"It was a really good jump, actually both of my jumps were really good today. I'm still working on some details and my jumps are getting better and better. I'm definitely satisfied with my performance today", said Kamil Stoch, who was struggling with technical problems recently.
"I was pretty nervous up there, I had to wait for a long time", explained Andreas Stjernen of Norway, who also jumped on 139 m and finished second today. "In the air it felt quite stable and my jump was really good so everything was okay."
Andreas Wellinger, who jumped on 138 m this evening, is the new overall leader of the RAW AIR. "There was tail wind from the left at the take-off and so it was difficult to gain the necessary height in order to jump far. It was difficult, but that's Ski Jumping, it's part of the game. My jump was quite good today. The RAW AIR is exciting. I think we still have eight jumps left, so nothing is decided yet", Wellinger said after his jump.
Sometimes heavy snowfall and constantly changing winds made it difficult today for the athletes and the jury and also forced a 20 minute break during the qualification. Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer had to wait at the start for a long time and then decided not to jump at all.
Right before the day's final jump of Stefan Kraft the snowfall got stronger again. Kraft landed already at 120 m (111 points) and lost 28 points in the overall ranking of the RAW AIR Tournament compared to his main opponent Andreas Wellinger.
Wellinger now leads the RAW AIR with a total of 942.2 points, followed by Stefan Kraft (935.1 points) and Markus Eisenbichler (917.5 points).
The competition in Trondheim starts on Thursday at 5:00 pm CET.
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