Norwegians fly to team gold

The team of Norway, with Robert Johansson, Andreas Stjernen, Johann Andre Forfang and Daniel Andre Tande, won the title at the Ski Flying World Championships 2018. As expected, the Norwegians were extremely strong and with 1662.2 points they were unbeatable for the rest of the field today. The teams of Slovenia and Poland came in second and third, the Germans could not win a medal.

The the new and old team World Champion, this was already the fourth title, after 2004, 2006 and 2016. With a total of four titles, Norway is now the most successful nation in team events at Ski Flying World Championships, Austria follows with three gold medals. "For me, this was the first team competition at World Championships, so I was a bit nervous today. It's an honor to be on this team. It's difficult to say what our secret is but work a lot on our flying skills and we always have confidence when we come to these bigger hills", Robert Johansson explained after the competition.

For the team of Slovenia (Jernej Damjan, Anze Semenic, Domen Prevc, Peter Prevc) today's silver was the second podium finish at Ski Flying World Championships. 18-year-old Domen Prevc showed convincing flights and, besides Anze Semenic, he was the guarantor of the success for the team of head coach Goran Janus. "Of course it's great to win the silver medal here so close to the Olympic Games. But we need to take it step by step and keep on working. I hope for the best at the Olympics. Honestly, I don't know why it went so much better for me today than yesterday. I jumped over 200 m already in the trial round and from that moment on it was really easy. At the beginning of the season I wasn't in a good shape and I didn't jump well, that's the main reason why I didn't compete in the World Cup", said Domen Prevc.

The Polish team around silver medalist Kamil Stoch could also take a medal today. Stefan Hula, Dawid Kubacki, Piotr Zyla and Kamil Stoch came in third. "I'm really happy about this bronze medal, it's the first for the team at Ski Flying World Championships and that's great. When somebody on the team wins a medal it's always an extra motivation and Kamil always does a good job of motivating us. Thank you to the Polish fans who came here and supported us and also to those who were watching on TV. It's always great for us. The Olympics are a different competition, but we are a strong team and we want to jump well there", said crowd favorite Piotr Zyla.

Andreas Wellinger, Markus Eisenbichler, Richard Freitag and Stephan Leyhe couldn't win a medal for Germany. "The fourth place is a pretty good result, it was a tough fight for the medals. We had the chance to win silver, but we would have had to show a more consistent performance. It wasn't a bad competition for us, it just wasn't good enough. It was not a bad SFWC, we won a medal, Richard had a great comeback. The jumps of Andreas Wellinger and Markus Eisenbichler were not that consistent, Stephan Leyhe had extremely bad conditions in the second round today", said head coach Werner Schuster.

Richard Freitag, bronze medalist on Saturday, was again the best athlete of the German team: "The last competitions showed how strong the Norwegians are, and Slovenia is always among the best in Ski Flying. Unfortunately, we could finish on the podium today. On the one hand, this is a pity, on the other hand, it also motivates us to keep on working. In the next team competition we will attack again, although if we are disappointed now. Before my last jump, I was looking down and I thought: What a great event, what a great weekend."

The teams of Austria, Switzerland, Russia, and Finland finished on the places five to eight.

The Ski Jumping World Cup continues next weekend in Zakopane (POL), where athletes and fans can expect an amazing atmosphere with more than 100 000 spectators. Even the qualification on Friday is already sold-out.