Too strong wind - No qualification on Thursday

The qualification at the Ski Flying World Championships could not take place on Thursday due to the strong wind in Oberstdorf.

Despite the expected difficult conditions, one training round could be held on the Heini-Klopfer-hill early afternoon.

The longest jump was shown by Daniel Andre Tande with 223.5 m. Kamil Stoch of Poland, with 214.5 m the second-best athlete in training, and Anze Semenic of Slovenia, third with 211.5 m, came closest to the Norwegian in this one round. Also Richard Freitag, who made his first jump here today since his crash in Innsbruck, presented himself in a good shape with 207 m.

The second training round was started a bit later, but it had to be canceled after only three athletes due to the difficult wind conditions. The start of the following qualification was postponed various times before the jury decided to cancel it for today at 4:45 pm CET.

"With this one training round, we got more today than we expected. The wind is getting stronger now and that's why we don't see a chance to let anyone fly anymore. For us it's a huge relieve that the training round could take place today. This means that we can start with the qualification tomorrow and if there will be problems again, we would also be able to start the competition with the entire field", said FIS Race Director Walter Hofer.

The qualification shall now take place on Friday at 2:30 pm CET, the first round of the individual event will follow at 4 pm CET.

Photo: Dominik Berchtold/OC Oberstdorf

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Statemens after the first day in Oberstdorf:

Stefan Kraft (AUT): I enjoy coming to Oberstdorf, it's a place were I always jump very well. Of course I hope that the wind conditions will be better in the next couple of days. We are happy that we could make one jump today. The waiting is exhausting, we would have prefered to jump three times today. It's always about medals at World Championships and of course it's my goal take one home on Sunday. But there are many strong ski flyers, the Norwegians are extremely strong and the Germans and the Slovenes have to be reckoned with. 10 to 15 jumpers will be fighting for the medals and fortunately, I'm one of them.

Peter Prevc (SLO): I have to be focused on my jumps and my goal for this weekend is to have nice, long flights and then the computer will tell me the result. The training jump today wasn't one of my best and I'm not happy with it. My mistake today was that I wasn't ready for this strong radius in the inrun. I only think about the next jump and not about what competition it is. I do my best every time I'm on the bar, every competition matters.

Andreas Stjernen (NOR): I like this hill, it's a bit difficult to jump here with the steep inrun and the hard radius, but I think the start was okay today and I'm looking forward to having more jumps here tomorrow. My jump today on 206 m was quite good, you'll have to jump longer than this to fight for the medals, but today it was a good start. I will try everything to win here on Saturday, I'm ready. In order to win the team competition we need eight good jumps, there also other strong nations here and you never know how the weather will. Nothing is decided until Sunday.

Richard Freitag (GER): I'm very happy to be here again. I was a bit nervous before the jump, but that's normal in Ski Flying. It was only one jump today and now I try to stay calm. Concerning the pain in the hip and in the knee everything is okay. I'm happy to be here and I'll do my best, but there are few strong Ski Flyers here. We'll see what the result will be at the end.