Dramatic first competition in Nizhny Tagil

What a crazy competition on Saturday in Nizhny Tagil (RUS). Markus Eisenbichler, who is in top shape right now and was leading after the first round, caught a wind gust in the final round today. The Bavarian could prevent a crash but already landed after 80 m and dropped many places to 28th. He also lost the yellow bib to today's winner Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway - shit happens.

Markus Eisenbichler was extremely upset right after his 80 m jump in freezing cold Nizhny Tagil. "I'm really mad, also about myself. But of course, I also know that something like this can always happen, that's part of our sport", said Eisenbichler, torn between frustration and insight.

The win today went to Ruka-winner Granerud. Like Eisenbichler, the Norwegian is currently in top shape. He posted two strong jumps and came in ahead of Austria's Daniel Huber. "The conditions were really difficult today, the wind was changing constantly. I'm sorry for Markus, but I think this happens to everyone at one point. It has also happened to me before", Granerud explained after the competition.

The jump of the day was shown by Norway's Robert Johansson. The 30-year-old set a new hill record with 142.5 m in the second round and moved up from 25th to third overall - Amazing. "This is a fantastic day for me, the third place and a hill record. That's something you don't achieve very often", the man with the characteristic beard said about his success.

The surprise of the day was provided by Thomas Lackner of Austria. With his fourth place, not far behind his teammate Daniel Huber, Thomas Lackner gave the Austrian team a reason to celebrate. He scored his first World Cup points and the Austrian team, decimated after the Corona infections in Wisla, achieved a strong team result.

Pius Paschke came in on a career-best fifth place and might be on his way to the podium in one of the next competitions. His coach Stefan Horngacher has already predicted that earlier this week. A top result also for the best Pole today: Aleksander Zniszczol in sixth.

Another special story in this eventful competition was written by the young Swiss Dominik Peter: First, he was disqualified after his first jump because he had adjusted his suit while sitting on the starting bar. But later it turned out that this was due to a technical problem on the bar, it was not Peter's fault and so there was no disqualification. In the end, he was 16th and achieved his best World Cup result ever.

Halvor Egner Granerud now leads the overall World Cup with 300 points, Markus Eisenbichler is second with 283 points.

The second competition in Nizhny Tagil starts on Sunday at 4:30 pm CET.

Full results