Second win in the second competition for Markus Eisenbichler

After winning the season opener last weekend in Wisla (POL), Markus Eisenbichler of Germany also won this winter's second World Cup in Ruka (FIN). The 29-year-old claimed the third World Cup win of his career ahead of the two Poles Piotr Zyla and Dawid Kubacki.

"It looks as if it's easy for me right now, but it's really hard work", explained Eisenbichler. "I have to fight every day and remain focused. The conditions today were quite nice, yesterday there was strong tailwind, but today there was some headwind and it felt really nice. It's going great with the coaching staff, but I know that I have to continue working and I have to improve my landing, I know that I can do better", said today's winner, who now leads the overall World Cup with the maximum of 200 points.

With his success today, Eisenbichler followed in the footsteps of Severin Freund, who won in Ruka 2012 and 2016 and has been the only German winner there so far.

"Markus was extremely strong today", said second-placed Piotr Zyla of Poland. "After the first round, I didn't expect to finish on the podium today. I don't have a specific plan for Sunday, for me, it's most important to have fun and show the best jumps I can. I hope the result will be as good as today, maybe a little bit better, but I don't really think about this", said Zyla.

For Zyla's teammate Dawid Kubacki, who won the qualification on Friday, the third place was his by far best result on the Rukatunturi-hill. "I'm satisfied with the result and I'm happy that I can stand on the podium together with my teammate. That's great. It's a bit of a shame that I lost one place after the first round, but that's sports. I did my best today and the jumps were good, maybe not perfect, but I'm satisfied and I will return to the hotel with a big smile on my face", told Kubacki.

Behind the Top 3, the fourth place went to the strong Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud, who missed the podium due to a weaker first jump. Robert Johansson was sixth and completed a very good result for Norway, even though two of the athletes of head coach Alex Stoeckl didn't have a reason to celebrate:

Daniel Andre Tande fell after the landing in the first round and was not able to walk out of the outrun, but during the second round he returned to the athletes' area and said that everything should be okay, except for some bruises. With some luck, Tande will be able to compete again on Sunday. Forfang was disqualified by the jury because he started too early.

Yukiya Sato was the best of the Japanese team in fifth, Germany's Pius Paschke and Karl Geiger came in eighth and ninth. 
Artti Aigro of Estonia provided the surprise of the day. After his 26th place in Wisla, the 21-year-old, who is training with the Finnish team, finished 14th today, an outstanding result for Aigro.

The second competition in Ruka starts on Sunday at 3:30 pm CET (qualification: 2 pm CET).

Full results