Peter Prevc takes win in the qualification

Peter Prevc won the first qualification on the reconstructed HS 225 Ski Flying hill in Oberstdorf. 5 800 fans saw the qualification jump of the Slovene of 221.5 m, which earned him a total of 203.7 points. With this performance Prevc seemed to be back again among the world's elite.

Behind Prevc, Russia's Dimitry Vassiliev (215 m; 196.6 points) and Robert Johansson of Norway (213.5 m; 190.9 points) convinced in second and third.

Dawid Kubacki, Jurij Tepes, Noriaki Kasai, Gregor Schlierenzauer, Evgeniy Klimov, Jernej Damjan and Denis Kornilov completed the Top 10 on the first day in Oberstdorf. The result list of the qualification is almost like a who-is-who of Ski Flying, plus three Russian athletes. The Russian team is showing really good performances right now, Evgeniy Klimov seems to push his teammates with his consistently strong performances since the start of the this season.

Veteran Janne Ahonen, who is the lone Finish athlete this weekend, came in 13th and presented himself in a good Ski Flying shape. The same applies for the two US Americans Kevin Bickner and Will Rhoads in 16th and 18th. Local hero Karl Geiger, who made the first official jump on the new hill on Thursday evening, also had no problems to qualify for the competition in 14th.

Among the jumpers, who failed to make the cut for the competition are the two young Austrians Philipp Aschenwald and Clemens Aigner, and Czech Lukas Hlava.

Besides the three top ranked jumpers in the qualification, Andreas Wellinger, who won in Willingen last weekend, Stefan Kraft of Austria and Slovenia's Domen Prevc, have to be considered favorites for Saturday's competition. Stefan Kraft provided the highlight of the day with a spectacular jump on 229 m in the official training. The Austrian then skipped the qualification jump.

Besides Kraft, Domen Prevc also left a strong impression. The youngest of the three Prevc brothers jumped on 205 and 221 m in training and, just like Kraft, he also decided not to make a third jump today. Both are already pre-qualified.

What can be said after the first day of flying in Oberstdorf: The new Heini-Klopfer-hill works, it works really well. At least that's what the athletes said after the first training and qualification jumps on the hill, that was modernized for about 12 million Euro.

The competition on Saturday will start at 4:00 pm CET.