Kilian Peier and Kamil Stoch strong on day 1 of the WSC
Feb 20, 2019·Ski Jumping
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2019 in Seefeld (AUT) started for the ski jumpers with the first official training on the Bergisel-hill in Innsbruck on Wednesday afternoon.
In the first round on the HS 130 large hill, Swiss Kilian Peier had the longest jump with 131 m. Closest to him was Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud with 130 m. There was a large gap between these two athletes and the rest of the field when it comes to distance.
With a jump of 122.5 m, Kamil Stoch of Poland was the third-best athlete in this round. Right behind the Olympic champion, the two best Germans Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler came in fourth and fifth with 119 m and 119.5 m. They were followed by overall World Cup leader Ryoyu Kobayashi, who jumped on 118 m.
Kamil Stoch then had the best jump in the second and final round of the day with 130.5 m. Kilian Peier also presented himself in consistently strong shape with the second place and 129 m. After he was 14th in the first round, Junshiro Kobayashi improved his performance and finished third with 126.5 m.
Markus Eisenbichler (122 m) and Ziga Jelar (129.5 m) were fourth and fifth, Karl Geiger and Ryoyu Kobayashi tied for sixth with 120 m and 124 m.
The entire Austrian team around defending champion Stefan Kraft did not take part in this first training session.
Norway's Thomas Aasen Markeng provided a moment of shock in the first training round. The Junior World Champion crashed into the advertising boards - similar to Sabirzhan Muminov of Kazakstan in the 4-Hills-Tournament. Markeng didn't sustain any injuries and landed on 118.5 m in the second round.
The second official training session will be held on Thursday at 2 pm CET, the qualification for Saturday's individual competition will take place on Friday afternoon (2:30 pm CET).
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