Stefan Kraft wins season opener

Austria's Stefan Kraft won the season opener in Ruka, Finland, on Saturday. Kraft came out on top in a thrilling competition ahead of the two Germans Pius Paschke and Stephan Leyhe.
The German team got off to a dream start to the new season.

Stefan Kraft achieved his 31st World Cup victory after two outstanding jumps. The Salzburg native had already celebrated a victory on the HS 142 Rukatunturi hill in Ruka last year. "I like it here when you get flying. The hard training in the summer has already paid off. Then you know what you've done it for when it hurts in training. I'm pleased that it worked out today. We accepted the international match, the Germans jump well, but luckily we had the upper hand in the end," joked the winner.

The real surprise of the competition, however, came in the places behind Kraft: the three German athletes Pius Paschke, Stephan Leyhe and Andreas Wellinger in places 2 - 4, Philipp Raimund in 7th place and Karl Geiger and Martin Hamann in 11th and 12th place. All six German athletes in the top 12 - there is no better way to start a season as a team.

"That was great for me, it was my first podium ever and I'm not the youngest anymore. I've always jumped well here and I was expecting something, especially after it went really well in the first round.
This was just the start of the season, there are still many competitions to come, but if the start goes so well, that's great of course. I hope that we can jump at such a high level throughout the winter," explained the 33-year-old Paschke.

Only the team from Austria was able to stand up to the German team. In addition to the day's winner Kraft, Daniel Tschofenig (5th place)  Michael Hayboeck and Jan Hoerl from the ÖSV team came 9th and 10th.

Accordingly, there was not much to be gained for the other teams in the first competition of the 2023/2024 winter, with only Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi (6th place) and Slovenia's Timi Zajc (8th place) making it into the top 10.

The competition went badly for Vladimir Zografski from Bulgaria. The overall winner of the 2023 Grand Prix was disqualified for wearing a suit that did not comply with the rules.
The team from Poland also experienced a very bitter evening. Only one athlete from the successful Polish team made it through to the final: Dawid Kubacki was the only Pole to score World Cup points in 21st place.

The hosts from Finland were delighted: with three athletes in the final: Kasperi Valto (24th place), Niko Kytosaho (19th) and Antti Aalto (18th), the Finns achieved a respectable result.

Gregor Deschwanden from Switzerland also had a good result (14th place), last year's winner Halvor Egner Granerud came 16th.

The second competition in Ruka starts on Sunday at 17:15 loc.