Ski jumpers hold first training on the large hill
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
Four days after the individual competition on the normal hill and after a few days off, the Olympic program now continues on the large hill for the ski jumpers. The first official training on the HS 142 in in the Alpenisa Jumping Center of PyeongChang was held on Wednesday evening.
In the first of three training rounds, Germany's Stephan Leyhe, who was not competing on the normal hill, had the best jump with 130.5 m. Slovenian youngster Timi Zajc jumped the farthest with 132.5 m, but he had much better conditions and so he came in fourth, behind Leyhe, Kamil Stoch of Poland (131 m) and Norway's Robert Johansson (129.5 m).
The two Poles Dawid Kubacki (130 m) and Stefan Hula (131 m) also landed beyond the 130 m mark in the first round of this session.
Robert Johansson, who claimed the bronze medal in the first competition of this Winter Games, then had the outstanding jump in the second round today with 138 m. His teammate Johann Andre Forfang, silver medalist on the normal hill, and Kamil Stoch came closest to the Norwegian with 133.5 m resp. 134 m.
The new Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger had a bit of a rusty start in eleventh, but with 131.5 m and the fourth place he could present himself a lot better in the second round. He jumped on exactly the same distance as his teammate Richard Freitag, they were followed by Daniel Andre Tande of Norway with 131 m.
Also in the third and final round of the day, Robert Johansson had the best jump with 134 m. Johann Andre Forfang came in right behind him again with 131.5 m. Defending champion Kamil Stoch was among the very best once again in third with 130 m and made clear that he will also be among the top contenders in Saturday's competition.
The longest jumps in this round were shown by the two Slovenes Tilen Bartol (136.5 m) and Anze Semenic (134.5 m) and Manuel Fettner of Austria (135m). But all three of them started two gates higher than Johansson, Forfang, and Stoch.
The second official training on the large hill will take place on Thursday at 8 pm (12 pm CET). The qualification for the individual competition on Saturday follows on Friday.
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