Stefan Kraft wins Ski Jumping thriller in Klingenthal
Dec 11, 2021·Ski Jumping
Stefan Kraft won the first of two Ski Jumping World Cups in Klingenthal (GER) on Saturday. In an extremely close competition, the Austrian finished ahead of Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud and Kamil Stoch of Poland.
Stefan Kraft had to wait for a World Cup win since February 2020 in Lahti (FIN), now the 2019/20 overall World Cup champion could finally take his next victory, his 22nd. "It was a great competition today, the conditions were perfect and the hill was extremely well prepared. I must admit, that I was a bit nervous when I was the last one on top of the hill, but I thought to myself: just keep going, don't defend, attack", said Kraft, who was already in the lead after the first round and defended this position with a top second jump.
For Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud, the second place today was the end of a tough drought in the last three competitions.
Three-time Olympic champion was celebrating his third place enthusiastically after the season so far didn't go as well as he would have wished. "I knew that I had to be patient and that the good results will come again, we have been working hard, we know that. Finishing on the podium in such an exciting and great competition is amazing and it motivates me for the next events", said Stoch.
Today was a great day for the German team. Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler tied for fourth, Andreas Wellinger was sixth and Pius Paschke and Constantin Schmid finished eleventh and 13th, an outstanding team result for the German athletes.
The Norwegians also achieved some strong results. Besides Granerud in second, Robert Johansson and Marius Lindvik came in eighth and ninth, Johann Forfang was 14th, and Daniel Andre Tande 18th. It was a strong performance of the Norwegian team after a mediocre start of the season so far.
Jan Hoerl, who won last weekend in Wisla, was tenth, veteran Manuel Fettner almost provided the surprise of the day. After the first round he was second, but after a bad second jump he finished only 16th.
Ryoyu Kobayashi showed a convincing performance and was the best Japanese in seventh. Finland's Niko Kytosaho (27th) and Pawel Wasek of Poland (30th) scored their first World Cup points of the season today.
With 405 points, Karl Geiger remains in the lead of the overall World Cup, Stefan Kraft is second (306 points) and Markus Eisenbichler third (287 points).
The second competition in Klingenthal starts on Sunday at 4 pm CET.
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