Ski jumping: Felders assessment of the weak individual start of the ÖSV-Adler

24 hours after the third team place in Wisla, the ÖSV-jumpers missed the individual start of the World Cup. Daniel Huber was the best Austrian on Sunday in 18th place, Stefan Kraft was only 21th after Windpech. Yevgeny Klimov took the first Russian victory in the World Cup ahead of the German Stephan Leyhe (6.7 points back).

ÖSV head coach Andreas Felder assessed the performance of his athletes realistically: “We are not yet where we should be to keep up with the best,” explained the new coach. The team competition had already shown him that. “Right now, when people try to attack. But we’re not gonna let it get us out of here and keep working.”

The weak individual performance in Poland, however, was no reason for Felder to be pessimistic, for he had also seen positive things. Huber managed an increase with the second jump and showed strength in the finals according to the coaches his best flight of the weekend. But the double world champion got the strongest tailwind of the field, 12.4 bonus points could not compensate for the shorter distance.

“I liked this jump the best of all my flights here. But then you don’t even jump to the K-point, it doesn’t feel good”, explained Kraft. But he wasn’t in top form either, admitted the Salzburg native. “The really good jumps weren’t there yet, but I didn’t get it here either.”

Huber said he wanted too much. “I’ve noticed in the last few days that something is going on that I still have potential. But instead of becoming more relaxed, I’ve become more aggressive and then it’s off in the other direction,” said the 25-year-old from Salzburg. “An 18th place is not catastrophic, but of course you expect more.”

However, the winner of the summer GP in Hinzenbach feels he is on the right track. “The jumpers, who were strong in the summer, are also at the front now, like Klimow or Leyhe. That’s definitely where I’m going.”

Clemens Aigner (24.) and Manuel Fettner (27.) made it to the final, Michael Hayböck (32. after Windpech) and Gregor Schlierenzauer (48.) were denied a place among the top 30.

After winning the qualification, Yevgeny Klimov also proved his top form in the individual competition. The 24-year-old had only switched from Nordic combined to special jumping in March 2015. At his debut in the Continental Cup he finished fourth, in early January 2017 he finished third in Innsbruck (only one run after the wind lottery) and his first podium place.

This year he has finally achieved his breakthrough. On Sunday, the overall winner of the summer GP like Junshiro Kobayashi last year in Wisla ensured a World Cup premiere victory. Leyhe stood on the podium for the first time. For local hero and cup defender Kamil Stoch, who had led Poland to team victory the day before, 0.3 points behind the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi only fourth place remained.