Manuel Fettner, Daniel Huber and Jan Hörl also showed good to very good jumps. Only ÖSV youngster Daniel Tschofenig didn’t manage at all on the Snow-Ruyi-Schanze, he is only a spectator in the first competition.
“I’m glad it’s so stable and works so well. Surprising for me, I would have liked it that way, I’ll gladly take it,” said Kraft following his jumps to freedom. On the small hill, the 28-year-old has already won three World Championship medals (gold in 2017 in Lahti and bronze in 2015 in Falun and 2019 in Seefeld).
The hill is good for him. “Maybe it’s good if everything goes a little slower. I’m happy that it’s been going so well on this hill for three days now,” said Kraft, who finished fifth in qualifying ahead of Manuel Fettner. “What worked for the last three days will work once more stay cool with the right tension, sleep well, eat well – because it’s prone to wind, you also need luck.”
Fettner has become friends with Schanze
Fettner, who bought his Olympic ticket just before the games, was up there with the changing wind conditions despite a less than ideal jump of 102 m. “The jump wasn’t that good. I was quite late but it works fine. It counts tomorrow, I feel very well,” said the veteran from Tyrol. Kraft landed at 100 m, Huber landed at 90, Hörl came in at 87. Of the 53 athletes who started, only three are absent on Sunday.
“We’re very good friends so far,” Fettner, who is still chasing medals in individual competitions, outlined his relationship with the hill. The fact that the medal clusters are hanging higher in the women’s team following Sara Marita Kramer’s CoV failure does not put the men’s team under any more pressure to succeed than it was anyway, said the 36-year-old. “It doesn’t matter, everyone wants to deliver anyway, nobody is there for fun.”
Huber and Hörl still behind
Huber, who finished 23rd in qualifying, admitted: “I’m still lacking a bit of consistency, my two colleagues are still ahead of me. But I can tell that everything is in place, I can fight for the medals with good jumps.”
Hörl, the Austrian with the best place in the World Cup, presented himself the weakest in the qualification. The man from Salzburg was surprised that he had to set his telemark following just 87 meters. “I thought it might come off now, but then it sucked me to the slope. I mightn’t fly, no idea why.”
Tschofenig only spectators for the time being
Tschofenig, who made it into the ÖOC squad in his first real World Cup season, has to watch first. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to adjust to the hill at all,” said the 19-year-old from Carinthia, who, measured by the training placements, was still better than the German World Cup leader Karl Geiger. The youngster has another opportunity to make a good impression next week on the large hill.
Incidentally, the Austrian team does not have much Olympic experience. Only Kraft (13th and 18th) and Fettner (23rd and 32nd) have already experienced games in Pyeongchang in 2018, Huber (29) and Hörl (23) are now celebrating their Olympic debut. Only two normal hill Olympic champions have come from Austria. Anton “Toni” Innauer triumphed in 1980 in Lake Placid, Ernst Vettori in 1992 in Albertville.
Stoch is back, historic opportunity for Kobayashi
The Pole Kamil Stoch has surprisingly moved up into the circle of medal contenders. After his ankle injury, the three-time Olympic champion convinced as did the Norwegians around Halvor Egner Granerud with the best training results, but held back in qualifying as 36th. The qualification finally ended with a Norwegian double victory by Marius Lindvik ahead of Robert Johansson.
Four Hills Tournament winner Ryoyu Kobayashi might become the first Japanese ski jumper to win Olympic gold outside of Japan. The Nagano home win by Kazuyoshi Funaki and gold in the team is now 24 years ago, the triumph of Yukio Kasaya in Sapporo exactly 50 years ago.
Of the Pyeongchang medalists, only third-placed Norway’s Johansson is included. His teammate Johann Andre Forfang, who won silver at the time, did not manage to submit the four negative PCR tests required to enter China in time following a Covid 19 infection. Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger did not make it into the German squad for sporting reasons.
