Norwegian Mixed Team on top in Willingen

The team from Norway ( Silje Opseth, Anna Odine Stroem, Marius Lindvik and Halvor Egner Granerud) won the mixed team competition of the ski jumpers in Willingen (GER) on Friday evening. 
The Norwegians prevailed in one round in extremely difficult conditions ahead of the teams from Austria and Germany.

It was by far the most difficult competition of the winter so far that the ski jumpers had to complete on Friday from Willingen. Continuous rain and strong wind made the competition a test of patience with most difficult conditions for athletes and jury. 
Due to numerous delays and difficult conditions, the jury ended the competition after one round.

"We had a lot of fun today despite the difficult conditions. We all managed strong jumps today and that's what we compete for. A team victory is very special, it is one of the best experiences you can have in ski jumping" explained Silje Opseth from the winning team of Norway.

"That was an exciting competition, it's almost blowing us away here, I have to hold the skis so they don't fall over. I have some respect in these conditions, I think that's human with my history. 
It's actually cool that I'm still ski jumping at all. The subconscious is working and we will work on this subconscious so that I can step on the gas more and more. 
If you don't step on the gas on this hill, you'll land very early and that's the challenge I'm taking on and I'm looking forward to it," explained Eva Pinkelnig from the Austrian team. 
Pinkelnig had a heavy fall in training in 2020.

"That was a very very difficult competition, the conditions were really tough today, that's why there was only one run that the jury pushed through and that was very difficult to control. As a team we did a great performance, we managed to do some cool jumps, we will work on continuing to do good jumps," explained Andreas Wellinger, who formed the German team together with Karl Geiger, Selina Freitag and Katharina Althaus.

Already in the first group, Japan's Yuki Ito caused a sensation with a flight to 154.5 metres, Ito could not stand the jump cleanly and touched ground with hands and back after her jump to a record distance.

In the last group the Slovenian Timi Zajc got a gust of wind under his skis during his jump which let him sail to an unbelievable 161.5 metres. 
Zajc would have gone much further if he had not aborted his jump. 
However, there was no chance for the flying specialist from Slovenia to stand the jump on the record distance, the landing pressure was too big after the extreme distance. 
Zajc remained unhurt after his fall, but was downright shocked by his jump.
"Madness. Only a few can do that, all the others tear their knees off and end up in hospital. When I see jumps like that, I get goose bumps," commented TV expert Sven Hannawald on Zajc's landing.

It was the 5th mixed team competition in history in Worldcup.

In Willingen, the competitions continue on Saturday with a women's competition and a men's competition.
The men's qualification scheduled for Friday evening was postponed to Saturday (start time 14:45) due to strong winds.