Ski Jumping: Disappointing ÖSV result in Ruka

Stefan Kraft was not able to reach his third place in the World Cup opener on Sunday in Ruka. The World Cup winner landed after a somewhat messed up first jump (126 m) and the daily distance of 145 m only on 13th position. Place. The best placed Austrian was Manuel Fettner in twelfth place. The Slovenian Jernej Damjan celebrated his second World Cup victory almost four years after the premiere.

Kraft had proven on Saturday in the fourth place in the team competition with the ski jump record of 147.5 meters that he is in Finland. This was “one of the hottest jumps of his career”, the Salzburg man said. But the next day he exaggerated a bit in the first run “I was somewhat over-motivated. It wasn’t a bad jump, but you can see how close it is, whether it works or not,”he said.

The 24-year-old made 13 places in the final, but the podium he was aiming for was out of reach:”It hurts a bit, I wanted to be at the front of the field,”Kraft explained. The double world champion, however, has no doubt that his form fits:”When my jumps come, I’ll be right at the front. But we’re only at the beginning. I’m trying to get a little bit of peace and quiet so that a jump like this doesn’t happen again.”

Fettner had been slowed down at the start in Poland after a severe cold. On Sunday he saw his performance after 134.5 and 138.5 meters realistically:”There wasn’t a really good jump, the overall river is still missing,”summed up the Tyrolean, who orientates himself to the best.

Head coach Heinz Kuttin described the performance of the entire team as “absolutely unsatisfactory”. You can’t force steps forward.”It’s annoying. You can’t start to skip this time with the knife between your teeth. We don’t quite have this trust yet,”the Carinthian criticized. For Michael Hayböck, Clemens Aigner and the final of 14. Manuel Poppinger dropped back to third place, only positions 25,27 and 28 remained.

The 34-year-old Damjan (140/142 m) defended his lead in the half time and won 2.8 points ahead of the Norwegian Johann Andre Forfang (136.5/142) and 8.4 points ahead of the German Andreas Wellinger (140/140). Damjan himself was surprised by his success:”Because I dedicated the summer to my family, because we are always on the road in winter.”