Stefan Kraft wins on the Holmenkollen

"My best jump ever"

"Everything worked out great for my today, I had two perfect jumps and good conditions in both rounds, that's why I could win. If it goes that well you have a lot of energy, so I'm already looking forward to jumping in Lillehammer tomorrow. It's cool to be the leader in the RAW AIR. Normally I would take a day off tomorrow, but that's not possible. The RAW AIR is a new challenge for all of us", the winner explained after the competition.

Wellinger 20.5 points behind Kraft

With the longest jump of the day of 133.5 m, Wellinger was in the lead after the first half of the competition. The German then jumped on 127 m in the final and could not keep up with Kraft: "Stefan just said that he made his best jump in the final, so it would have been hard to beat him anyway, but I also had a mistake in my second jump, it was not as good as my first one. It was a great competition, Stefan is in a great shape and so it will be hard to beat him. But in Ski Jumping it can go really fast in both directions. I'm sure that the RAW AIR will be exciting until the very last jump", said Andreas Wellinger, who is 20.5 points behind Kraft in the RAW AIR overall ranking after 5 of 16 jumps.

Wellinger's teammate Markus Eisenbichler achieved the second podium result of his career in the World Cup. Eisenbichler jumped on 128.5 m and 125.5 m and scored 244.1 points. "It was a very, very good day for our team with two athletes on the podium. I was hoping that Andi can show a normal second jump, not such a bad one. But if it's still enough for him to finish second you can't complain. The RAW AIR is different than the 4-Hills-Tournament, because the qualifications and the team events also count. This makes it really exhausting and it can't be compared to the 4-Hills. I think it's really cool, but I'm focusing on my jumps and not on the overall ranking", said Eisenbichler.

Daiki Ito came in fourth and could finally achieve a top result for the team of Japan, after it has been a difficult 2016/17 winter season for Ito, Kasai and the others. Behind Ito, the places 5, 6, 7 and 10 went to the team of Norway. Andreas Stjernen, Robert Johansson, Daniel Andre Tande and Johann Forfang are getting better and better on their home turf and haven't lost sight of the RAW AIR overall ranking.

With 11 competition jumps to go there's still a lot possible. Best Norwegian is currently Andreas Stjernen in sixth, about 60 points behind Stefan Kraft. But considering the 5 rounds on the Ski Flying hill in Vikersund at the end of the RAW AIR series, it's seems to be a lot more than it actually is.

Also Piotr Zyla of Poland and Slovenia's Peter Prevc still have a good chance to finish on the overall podium. Piotr Zyla, ninth today on the Holmenkollen, is fourth, only 2.9 points behind third-placed Markus Eisenbichler. Peter Prevc, who was second in the RAW AIR after Saturday's team event, lost some ground with a 16th place today, but in fifth he currently is less than ten points behind Eisenbichler.

It's not going that well right now for Zyla's teammate Kamil Stoch. The Pole finished on a disappointing 22nd place on Sunday and not only lost his chances to achieve a top result in the RAW AIR, but also the lead in the overall World Cup. In the fight for the big crystal bowl Stoch is now 31 points behind Stefan Kraft.

The RAW AIR continues already tomorrow with the qualification in Lillehammer. The team will travel to Lillehammer on Monday morning, the official training and the qualification will be held in the afternoon.