Defending champion Stefan Kraft wins the qualification
Feb 28, 2019·Ski Jumping
Stefan Kraft won the final qualification of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld (AUT). The defending champion of Austria jumped on 106 m (130.9 points) on Thursday and took the win ahead of Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi (108.5 m; 127.5 points) and Kamil Stoch of Poland (107 m; 126.1 points).
Besides the top 3 today, Dawid Kubacki of Poland, who finished fourth in the qualification, is also among the top contenders for the medals on Friday.
Due to the difficult wind conditions, the trial round on the Toni-Seelos-Olympic hill in Seefeld had to be canceled and the start of the qualification was postponed to 5 pm CET. With this delay of 30 minutes, the qualification could be carried out smoothly and without major interruptions.
All of the favorites were among the best today. Surprisingly strong performances were shown by Russia's Evgeniy Klimov in fifth and Slovenia's Peter Prevc in eighth.
Best German was Richard Freitag in seventh, the individual medalists Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler finished 16th and ninth and easily qualified for the competition on Friday, just like Freitag and Stephan Leyhe (11th). "This hill is completely different than the one in Innsbruck, you have to adjust to it", Karl Geiger explained after his jump. "I was way too late at the take-off in the qualification, when I can do better at the take-off tomorrow, it shall work pretty well", World Champion Markus Eisenbichler said after his qualification jump.
Besides today's winner Stefan Kraft, Michael Hayboeck (6th) and Daniel Huber (13th) also ensured a positive atmosphere within the hosting Austrian team. Kilian Peier of Switzerland was tenth and could provide yet another surprise after winning the bronze medal in the large hill event.
The competition on the normal hill starts on Friday at 4 pm CET.
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