Olympic hero Kamil Stoch celebrated his seventh victory of the season at the World Cup in Trondheim after another air show. The Pole won at the Granasen ski jump ahead of double World Champion Stefan Kraft (Austria) and the Norwegian Robert Johansson and extended his clear lead in the overall standings of the “Raw Air” series. As the best German Richard Freitag landed in fifth place.
Stoch improved the jump record by three metres in the first run with 146.0 metres before leaving no doubt about his victory with a set at 141.0 metres. My own competition was quite okay,” said Freitag, who was seven metres from the podium. Stoch has already won the Four Hills Tournament and gold in Pyeongchang this winter, and he is also leading clearly in the overall World Cup.
Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding) remained in 22nd place. For the 22-year-old, it was by far the worst result of the season:”The competition was somehow nothing,” said Wellinger. Karl Geiger, on the other hand, surprised with seventh place, his second-best result of the winter:”The day was really good for me,” said the man from Oberstdorf.
Markus Eisenbichler improved with a strong second jump from 19. to tenth place. I will probably never forget this jump again, maybe I had two or three of them in my life,” said Eisenbichler.
Stephan Leyhe (Willingen) and Andreas Wank (Hinterzarten) take 20th place. or 24. Space. David Siegel (Baiersbronn) clearly missed the second heat in 50th place.
In the overall standings of the ten-day “Raw Air” series Stoch is clearly ahead of the last stop in Vikersund with 1582.3 points ahead of the Norwegians Johansson (1494.7) and Andreas Stjernen (1470.2), who finished fourth on Thursday. Friday (1422.5), Wellinger (1365.3) and Geiger (1353.89) occupy ranks seven, nine and ten.
The Norway tour will continue on Friday with the qualification in Vikersund (5.30 pm). On the “Monsterbakken” one year ago Stefan Kraft had sailed the ski-flying world record to 253.5m.