Karl Geiger leads after day 1 in Planica
Dec 11, 2020·Ski Jumping
The first day of the Ski Flying World Championships could not have gone any better. It's an extremely exciting race for the top after the first two rounds on the Letalnica Ski Flying hill in Planica. After two of the four rounds, Karl Geiger leads with 431.2 points, followed by Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud (426.6 points) and Markus Eisenbichler (425.7 points).
"'I'm actually a bit surprised by my performance today myself. The jump in the first round was one of my best ever. I'm extremely happy that I'm in the lead at halftime, I didn't expect that, but tomorrow I'll continue to attack", Geiger set the motto for Saturday right after his second jump today.
Halvor Egner Granerud confirmed his great shape from the World Cup on the huge hill in Planica. Once again he posted two stable jumps that earned him a total of 426.6 points and a lead of only 0.9 points over Markus Eisenbichler, who had a fantastic second jump of 247 m.
In the first round, Eisenbichler still seemed to be affected by almost crashing in the trial round when he could only barely avoid a fall right after the landing of his flight.
After recovering from a Covid-19 infection, Austria's Michael Hayboeck presented himself in great shape and is fourth at halftime only 2.8 points behind Eisenbichler. In Ski Flying, this is a more than tiny margin. Robert Johansson is fifth and in striking distance, just like Japan's Yukiya Sato in sixth and the two Poles Piotr Zyla and Kamil Stoch in seventh and eighth.
30 points can be gained and lost in a split second, so the fight for the medals is far from over after the first day and lots of excitement is guaranteed on day 2.
The third and fourth round will start on Saturday at 4 pm CET.
