Kamil Stoch with very good start on the large hill
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
The exciting competitions on the normal hill at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti (FIN) are history, from now on the athletes are jumping on the HS 130 large hill.
On Monday morning the first official training was held on this impressive facility and Kamil Stoch proved right away that he will have to be reckoned with in the fight for the title and the medals. After a break on Sunday, because Poland was not competing in the mixed team event, the World Cup leader had the longest jump of the day already in the first round with 131.5 m.
Peter Prevc of Slovenia convinced with 127.5 m, Stoch's teammate Maciej Kot came in third with 123.5 m. Also among the best in the first jump were Manuel Fettner of Austria (122 m) and Czech Roman Koudelka (124.5 m) in fourth, as well as Norway's Robert Johansson, sixth with 125 m.
Kamil Stoch also had the best jump in the second round with 126 m. This time the two Norwegians Andreas Stjernen (124 m) and Robert Johansson (125.5 m) came closest to him. Strong performances were also shown by Maciej Kot and Dawid Kubacki of Poland with 124 m. Anders Fannemel of Norway jumped half a meter farther than Kamil Stoch with 126.5 m, but he started from one gate higher than the Pole.
After finishing 13th and 17th in the first two rounds, Germany's Stephan Leyhe improved his performance and was the best in the third round with his jump of 129.5 m. Norwegian Daniel Andre Tande also had his best jump in the final round with 128.5 m. For Kamil Stoch his 124.5 m were enough to come in third. Austria's Manuel Fettner (126 m) and Johann Andre Forfang of Norway (128 m) also concluded this training day with some long jumps.
Like on the normal hill, Domen Prevc is still struggling with his shape. He was only 35th, 40th and 23rd and had his best jump in the third round with 116 m. The Slovenian now receives reinforcements by Jurij Tepes, who came to Lahti for the events on the large hill. With the places 12, 18 and 11 and a jump of 125 m in the third round he had a solid start in this WSC.
The normal hill medalists, Stefan Kraft, Andreas Wellinger and Markus Eisenbichler, and some other athletes decided not to participate in this first training session.
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