Stefan Kraft is Ski Flying World Champion 2024
Jan 27, 2024·Ski Jumping
Austria's Stefan Kraft won the title of Ski Flying World Champion at the Ski Flying World Championships in Kulm on Saturday.
Kraft came out on top in a dramatic final ahead of Andreas Wellinger from Germany and Timi Zajc from Slovenia.
For exactly two hours, the wind on the 235 meter HS hill at Kulm annoyed athletes, spectators and the jury.
The start of the third of four competition rounds, originally scheduled for 14:00, had to be postponed again and again because the wind was too strong.
The last possible start time was 16:00.
And to the delight of the 20,000 fans on the hill, it did start at 16:00. Many had feared that there would be no round possible on this Saturday.
However, due to the late start time, it was already clear that there would not be the two planned rounds, but only one.
And in this one run, Austria's Stefan Kraft, the current World Cup leader and serial winner of the current season, once again showed his top class. Kraft overtook the Slovenian Timi Zajc, who was leading at half-time, and secured the gold medal ahead of Andreas Wellinger, who was also able to overtake Zajc.
"I was brutally nervous, luckily everything I had planned worked out on the jump. It was great that it was enough," said Kraft. "It's one of my very best days. It's wonderful that I was able to experience it all. Thanks also to the whole team. Everyone is working hard and I can enjoy it. But we're not done yet and I'm still looking forward to a worthy finish tomorrow," Kraft explained in the ORF interview.
"It was extremely close at the front.The top three were within 4.7 points of each other, which is practically nothing. Sure, I'm only 2.2 points behind Stefan Kraft and the gold medal, but this competition today was very close to being canceled due to the wind conditions and if it had been canceled I would have finished fourth and gone home with a metal medal," said Andreas Wellinger, who was still in fourth place after the first two rounds on Friday.
Behind the top three, Norway's Johann Andre Forfang finished in an unfortunate fourth place. Behind Forfang, Lovro Kos from Slovenia, Piotr Zyla from Poland and the surprisingly strong Finn Niko Kytosaho completed the top 7.
Ryoyu Kobayashi finished 9th, while defending champion Marius Lindvik from Norway came 13th.
The team competition will follow on Sunday, 9 teams with four athletes each are at the start, the competition starts at 14:00, the weather forecast is very good.
