Timi Zajc starts GP with quali-win
Jul 19, 2019·Ski Jumping
Slovenia's Timi Zajc won the first qualification of the 2019 summer season. With a jump of 128 m and 135.5 points, Zajc showed a convincing performance on the Adam-Malysz-hill on Friday evening. Local hero Dawid Kubacki (124.5 m; 133.2 points) and Markus Eisenbichler of Germany (126.5 m; 133.0 points) followed in second and third.
In slightly changing wind conditions and summer temperatures, the many fans on the HS 134 in Wisla first saw an impressive training during which it rained a bit from time to time. The qualification was then carried out without any rain and the fans were enthusiastic, as usual.
The first highlight in the qualification was set by Norway's Daniel Andre Tande. The reigning Ski Flying world champion, who will compete for the first time since February 3rd this weekend, was already strong in training. In the qualification, he then posted the longest jump of the day with 136.5 m, but touched the ground with both hands. So the Norwegian came in only 33rd, but he will have to be reckoned with in Sunday's individual competition (a team event will be held on Saturday). Besides Tande, also Russi's Evgeniy Klimov left a strong impression in training, in the qualification he finished ninth.
Horngacher and Dolezal satisfied
The two new head coaches, Stefan Horngacher (Germany) and Michal Dolezal (Poland) had a good start today. With the exception of Stefan Hula, every Polish and German athlete made the cut for Sunday's competition.
The jumpers of Austria couldn't live up to their potential: The best was Stefan Kraft in 30th, but he showed in the training earlier today he can fight for the top spots on Sunday. All Austrians qualified for the competition.
With Robin Pedersen (6th), Marius Lindvik (8th) and Johann Andre Forfang (10th) three Norwegians finished in the Top 10 today. And that even though they received very bad news during the course of this past week. First, former world record holder Bjoern Einar Romoeren announced that he was diagnosed with cancer, yesterday Anders Fannemel fell in training and sustained a serious knee injury. He will probably miss the entire season.
The team event in Wisla starts on Saturday at 8:15 pm CET, the individual competition follows on Sunday at 5:30 pm CET.
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