The ski jumping World Cup weekend in Willingen, Germany started with a big disappointment for Stefan Kraft. The newly crowned ski flying world champion and overall World Cup leader missed the second round in difficult conditions on Saturday in 39th place and came away empty-handed. The victory was secured by the Norwegian Johann Andre Forfang, who jumped a record jump of 155.5 m in the final. The best Austrian was Michael Hayböck in fourth place.
In the first round, the leading group of all people encountered the most difficult wind conditions in the rain, which led to a few crashes. This affected, among others, Kraft and the German Karl Geiger (33rd), who had to watch the final. The ÖSV star was a little at a loss after his 122 m set. “I actually implemented what I set out to do. It felt pretty good, but the ski never came in properly. The trainers also said the jump was actually okay,” Kraft explained in the ORF interview.
Extremely changing wind
The decisive factor for the 30-year-old from Salzburg was not the rain, but the extremely changing wind. “It was turbulent and difficult today. Of course it hurts now,” said Kraft, who last missed the top 30 in the World Cup more than three years ago (Wisla November 22, 2020/32) and had already won eight individual competitions this year (including the Ski Flying World Championships).
All other five ÖSV Eagles made it to the finals. Of them, Hayböck coped best with the conditions. With jumps over 141 and 136 m, he was only 4.2 points short of the podium. The 32-year-old came fourth two weeks ago in Zakopane. “To be honest, it wasn’t the perfect jump. I’ve actually always had a bit of a hard time on this hill. Fourth place is the best result of my career here,” said Hayböck.
Forfang won with a hill record
Daniel Tschofenig (140.5/137) came in sixth, immediately ahead of Daniel Fettner (135.5/144). Jan Hörl, who was 29th and only just stayed in the competition after the first round, improved to twelfth place with a 148 m set. Daniel Huber was 19th.
Meanwhile, Forfang was in a class of its own on Saturday. The Norwegian, who had already set the hill record of 153 m in qualification on Friday, went one better and won with a 31 point (!) lead over the Japanese Ryoyo Kobayashi and compatriot Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal. It was Forfang’s fourth World Cup victory, the second in Willingen after 2018. There is another individual competition on the program there on Sunday (4:10 p.m.).