Superior Freund flies on top of the podium

Superior Freund flies on top of the podium After setting the new hill record in the second trial round (237.5m), Severin Freund confirms his marvellous feeling with the restyled Bad Mitterndorf facility with a peremptory victory.

It's the 11th win and 29th podium for the Ski Flying World Champion, who leads Stefan Kraft by 26.1 points after a close battle in the first round (2.3 point difference in favour of the German). Peter Prevc ended in 3rd place after the first jump, losing his position to his teammate Jurij Tepeš in the last one. Tepeš, who skipped the Four Hills Tournament, steps on the podium with an outstanding 231m second jump; behind him is Prevc, while 5th place goes to Noriaki Kasai. The Japanese legend made a great comeback after a disappointing 11th score in windy first round. Rune Velta, 2011 Ski Flying vice-champion, earns a decent 6th position edging Jernej Damjan and Piotr Zyla. Fourth after the first run, Markus Eisenbichler goes down to 9th with Roman Koudelka closing the top-10. The race has been a tricky one due to complicated conditions, changing from strong tail wind to neutral breeze with good pressure under the skis. Many atlethes have been unlucky, such as Michael Hayböck, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Robert Kranjec. Hayböck recoveries from 28th to 16th place and sees Kraft closing on him, while Kranjec reaches an embarassing 116m in the first round, ending 40th and last. Davide Bresadola, the only qualified Italian, achieves a brilliant 17th place with two solid performances. By Edoardo Vercellesi (Twitter: @edoverce97)

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