Stefan Kraft again the best ski flyer

Only gusty wind could stop the great Ski Flying party on the new Heini-Klopfer-hill in Oberstdorf. The strong wind lead to the cancellation of the final and so Austria's Stefan Kraft could already celebrate his second win in the Ski Flying World Cup within 24 hours after only one round. Andreas Wellinger set another hill record and came in second again, Norway's Daniel Andre Tande was fourth again. The third place went to Slovenia's Jurij Tepes.

The first round on the Heini-Klopfer-hill was held under good conditions. The outstanding performance was once again shown by Germany's Andreas Wellinger, who had yet another record flight. After 234.5 m on Saturday, he landed at unbelievable 238 m on Sunday - enthusiastically celebrated by the crowd. Right after Wellinger, Stefan Kraft had an amazing jump of 235.5 m, worse wind conditions for the Austrian meant more compensation points and a clear lead for Kraft.

Then in the break the wind suddenly got stronger. "This was very surprising for us. All of a sudden we had gusts from 4 m/s tail wind to 4 m/s head wind. Ski Flying is not possible under such conditions. It would have been dangerous", explained Borek Sedlak, assistant of FIS Race Director Walter Hofer and responsible for the start of the athletes. The jury had to cancel the final round after the start was delayed for ten minutes various times.

"I would have wanted to attack Stefan again in the second round, but the conditions didn't allow that. Now we shared the success this weekend. Stefan got the wins, I set the hill records", said record holder Wellinger.

Stefan Kraft, who took his seventh World Cup win today, was overjoyed after his second win in Oberstdorf: "I think this was one of the best flights of my career. I saw Andi jump before me and he was extremely high. I analyzed yesterday's jumps and saw that there's still room for improvement. Today I attacked even more, the conditions were perfect for that today", said Kraft.

Slovenia's Jurij Tepes was also very satisfied with his third place: "Finally I could show good jumps here in Oberstdorf, the first one in the qualification was also very good. On Friday I was disappointed because I didn't jump well, but today it was great", said Tepes.

Once again Daniel Andre Tande closely missed the podium. The Norwegian came in fourth for the seventh time this season. He tied for fourth with Slovenia's Peter Prevc, for whom this was the best result since Ruka late November.

Best Pole in today's Ski Flying event in Oberstdorf was not Kamil Stoch, but Maciej Kot in sixth. Overall World Cup leader Stoch finished ninth, right behind his teammate Piotr Zyla. The seventh place went to Domen Prevc, who was fifth on Saturday and can definitely be satisfied with the performances in his first Ski Flying competitions.

Behind Michael Hayboeck of Austria (10th) and Germany's Richard Freitag (11th), veteran Noriaki Kasai,  the 1992 Ski Flying World Champion, proved that he is still a strong ski flyer, even 25 years after this success.

Kamil Stoch of Poland still leads the overall World Cup with 1067 points, ahead of Daniel Andre Tande of Norway (953 points) and Stefan Kraft (920 points) who is now ahead of Slovenia's Domen Prevc (867 points).

The World Cup continues next weekend in Sapporo (JPN).

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Good news from Schlierenzauer

In the qualification Gregor Schlierenzauer provided a moment of shock when he fell after the landing. After the competition there was some good news from the Austrian. "Gregor didn't sustain any fractures, he has severe bruises and there will be further medical checks this evening. It was a normal telemark landing, then the right ski got under the left one and he fell. He handled it very well, but such things happen", explained head coach Heinz Kuttin. "Gregor will now analyze it, it won't be easy, I hope that the pain will not be too strong in the next days", Kuttin concluded.