DSV Eagles fight in Vikersund

Domen Prevc dominated the training and qualification rounds at the start of the ski flying weekend in Vikersund. On Saturday, Stephan Embacher surprised everyone with his first World Cup victory, whilst the German ski jumpers all scored points but were unable to challenge for the top places. The second competition on Sunday had to be cancelled due to difficult wind conditions.

Domen Prevc has impressively confirmed his status as favourite at the start of the ski flying weekend in Vikersund, Norway. The Slovenian demonstrated his class as early as Friday’s training session: he won both training rounds, the first with a dream jump of 245 metres. In the qualification round, Prevc then came out on top with 219.5 metres and 218.8 points, ahead of Norway’s Isak Andreas Langmo, who scored 211 points with a jump of 239 metres. Third place went to Japan’s Ren Nikaido (225.5 m/201.9 pts).

The German ski jumpers qualified with six athletes for the first individual ski flying event, but were unable to challenge for the top places. The best German was Pius Paschke, who finished eleventh with a jump of 207 metres, just ahead of his team-mate Luca Roth (12th). Philipp Raimund, fourth in the overall World Cup standings, finished 15th with a jump of 205.5 metres, whilst former world champion Karl Geiger took 17th place with 204.5 metres. Andreas Wellinger (33rd) and Ben Bayer (35th) followed behind. Bayer is new to the World Cup squad and is expected to replace Felix Hoffmann, who is taking a break following a recent dip in form to stabilise his performance.

On Saturday, Austria’s Stephan Embacher made headlines: with jumps of 232 and 225 metres, he secured the first World Cup victory of his career and, at the same time, took the lead in the overall ski flying standings. Second and third places went to Japan’s Tomofumi Naito (240/230 m, 446.8 points) and Norway’s Johann Andre Forfang (239/224 m, 443.7 points). Domen Prevc suffered a surprise setback in the second round and dropped back to fifth place. The German jumpers were unable to compete at the top here either, but put in solid performances: Andreas Wellinger finished seventh (227/219 m), Karl Geiger ninth, whilst Philipp Raimund took 18th place with a jump of 225.5 metres. Pius Paschke collected further World Cup points in 26th place. Luca Roth (31st) and Ben Bayer (38th) missed out on the final round and failed to score any points.

See Saturday’s results. 

The second ski flying event scheduled for Sunday in Vikersund had to be cancelled due to difficult wind conditions. The qualifying round had already been disrupted by erratic gusts and was abandoned following a serious fall by Poland’s Kacper Tomasiak. Fortunately, Tomasiak escaped without serious injury and is being kept under observation in hospital as a precaution.
The ski jumpers’ season will conclude this coming weekend at the legendary ski flying hill in Planica (Slovenia). From Friday to Sunday, the programme features two individual and one team ski flying event, with training and the qualifying round starting as early as Thursday.

To the official World Cup overview.