Kranjec wins on his home hill for the first time!

Kranjec wins on his home hill for the first time!

It was the day of the ski-flying world-champion! Robert Kranjec came and won.

The weather was just perfect for ski-flying and also watching it: Sunny, 14° and a bit too windy. But the wind had no chance to destroy the great mood the crowd was in. There’s barely a competition that is more noisy than the ski-jumping finals in Planica!

To be honest, when it’s up to go to Planica we always have to keep in mind how easy it is to fall there. Just remember Nori Kasai and Pascal Bodmer last year. Both of them had to be treated at the hospital, leaving Bodmer with a broken shoulder and the fight to still come back into the first team. This time it happened to Nejc Dezman, who’s left ski crossed under his right one when setting a telemark, which led to a fall. But obviously it looked worse than it was, because he walked away without any problems although the young Slovenian was disappointed not to reach the final round because of the low points he got for falling.

(A berkutschi.com photo)

Despite of this, it was an awesome competition! Simon Ammann made his best efforts to win but against the 227,5m-jump by Kranjec in first round he couldn’t do anything and had to take the 2.place, although he had an incredible 222m-fly in the final round. When we’re talking about far jumps we also have to mention Martin Koch, who already showed he’s a fantastic ski-flyer and also proved this with 225m today. He really deserves to be on the podium!

Freund and Freitag- Germany’s best men- had a good day showing stable and far jumps. They have been rewarded with the 7.and 8.place. We also can be really proud of a good team result of the Polish jumpers, who are young but improving by the hour! Also Kofler, who usually struggles in trial round just to show that he is one of the best of the world, managed a good 6.rank.

All Norwegian fans will asked themselves, what’s wrong with Rune Velta? The ski-flying vice-world champion had a lot of luck to be in today’s competition at all being 29th at the quali yesterday and even more coming into the final round as the 30th jumper today. Let me remind you, it’s his first full season in the WC, he got the silver medal at the SFWC in Vikersund, was in every team competition and these are the finals at the very end of the season. I believe it’s kind of normal to be a bit tired after all of this.

But while some jumpers seem to lose their power a bit, others are gaining it right now. One of them is Bjørn Einar Romøren. The former world record holder made clear with his jump of 212m that he is still in the game when it comes to ski-flying. It’s just a pity that he got bad wind conditions for his 2.jump, which finally made him 10th today.

And for those of you who already miss Peter Prevc, he also has been there today to celebrate his team mate's victory. He still needs to undergo a surgery to get removed the metal that they put in his shoulder after his fall but we will definitely see him in the Summer Grand Prix.

With his great victory today, Kranjec is now leading the ski-flying world cup with 295 points ahead of Daiki Ito (260 points), who has been 4th today.

So there’s still the question about who’s going to win the WC overall! Anders Bardal who gained the 12th place today and his competitor Gregor Schlierenzauer (5. today) are only separated by 100 points. As you know well, a victory is worth 100 points. Therefore it is not clear right now, that Bardal won the WC although different media already reported about that (hello to Norge ;)). To be totally honest, when Bardal doesn’t oversleep Sunday’s individual competition, there will be no doubt who’s going to win the overall WC because only the 30 best jumpers in the WC are starting and 30 jumpers get points in individual competitions. So just in case Bardal will be on the last place and Schlierenzauer will win this one, then Bardal will be leading with 1point – and still win the globe! That means all Norge fans can breathe again and all Schlierenzauer fans can still feel miffed. (Sorry ;))

So you see a lot of things happened today and a lot more will happen on the upcoming days - it’s definitely worth to visit Planica – you should immediately get your tickets for next year, because it is indeed like a big ski-jumping-party there.

- by Peggy Kierstan (pikayartist)