Kamil Stoch with strong start into the winter
Nov 19, 2021·Ski Jumping
Today the wait was over: The 2021/22 World Cup season started with the qualification in Nizhny Tagil (RUS). The strongest performance in this round was shown by Poland's Kamil Stoch.
With the longest jump of the day on 135 m and 128.5 points, the three-time Olympic champion won more than ten points ahead of Anze Lanisek of Slovenia, who landed at 129 m and scored 118.1 points.
Austria's Daniel Huber (116.4 points) in third and Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi, who is considered one of the top contenders this season by many experts, in fourth (115.3 points) had a very good start of the season as well.
Narrowly ahead of Markus Schiffner of Austria, Karl Geiger was the best athlete of the German Ski Association in fifth today. After his long break due to a knee injury, Geiger's teammate Stephan Leyhe finished in very good eighth place. "I improved my performance in every jump today and tomorrow I want to continue like that and keep on working to make my jump more stable again score a few points so I don't have to start that early again", Stephan Leyhe said after his comeback.
Switzerland's Killian Peier, who also missed the entire last season, showed a great performance on came in ninth, his young teammate Dominik Peter presented himself in very good shape as well and finished 11th.
Last winter's highflyer Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway came in only 24th today, Dawid Kubacki and Marius Linvik, 36th and 37th, also have some room for improvement on the large hill in Nizhny Tagil.
Granerud's teammates Anders Fannemel, who came back from injury and is now competing in the World Cup for the first time since March 2019, and Daniel Andre Tande, who had such a serious crash in Planica in March, made the cut for the competition in 26th and 44th.
The teams of Turkey and Romania had reason to celebrate today, both will be represented in this season's first competition. Fatih Arda Ipcioglu and Andrei Feldorean could qualify this evening and will make their debuts in the World Cup tomorrow.
On the other hand, it was a disappointing day for some well-known athletes. Domen Prevc, Stefan Kraft, and Timi Zajc were only 52nd, 53rd, and 54th, and will not be able to take part in the World Cup opener on Saturday (4 pm CET).
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