Team Austria claims the win in Lahti
Feb 26, 2022·Ski Jumping
Lead by an outstanding Stefan Kraft, the Ski Jumping team of Austria, with Jan Hoerl, Clemens Aigner, Ulrich Wohlgenannt, and Stefan Kraft, won the team competition in Lahti (FIN) on Saturday evening. In good conditions, the Olympic champions came in ahead of the teams of Slovenia and Austria after an exciting final round.
With the final jump of the competition, Stefan Kraft, who had already won Friday's individual competition in Lahti, decided the event for his team. He posted a jump of 128 m and was better than the final jumper of the Slovenians, Peter Prevc (120.5 m).
"I think the performance of our team was really good, in the second round it was better than in the first round. Every one of us showed a very good performance and we are happy that we could win here", said Clemens Aigner. Aigner and Ulrich Wohlgenannt were new on the team, Manuel Fettner and Daniel Huber, who won team gold in Beijing, were not competing today in Lahti.
It was the 35th win in a World Cup team competition for Austria, Stefan Kraft was also the dominating athlete in a virtual individual ranking with 303 points. Marius Lindvik was second-best with 276.4 points.
The team of Slovenia was in the lead until the very last jump, but could then not keep up with Stefan Kraft in such great shape. "I think we did a great job, but unfortunately the Austrians were even better", Cene Prevc explained, who was on the Slovenian team together with his brother Peter, Timi Zajc, and Ziga Jelar.
For Germany, Severin Freund had a great final jump of 131 m. "We as a team were hoping for an even better result, but Austria and Slovenia performed well today and we made some mistakes, especially in the first round. I had a bad landing twice and then you are behind, but we are still happy to be on the podium", he said.
The fourth place went to the team of Norway, followed by Japan, the surprisingly good team of Finland, Russia, and Poland.
The second individual competition in Lahti starts on Sunday at 4 pm CET.
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