Ski jumping: Kraft confirms upward trend in Ruka

Stefan Kraft indicated his upward trend in the Ski Jumping World Cup with good jumps in Ruka on Sunday. After winning the qualification and a moderate first run (14th), the World Champion improved to tenth place in the final.

It was the first top ten place for the team of head coach Andreas Felder. The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi celebrated a double victory in Finland.

Kraft was not satisfied with the first run, but was happy about the two good jumps of the day. “They were really fun,” said the 25-year-old Salzburg native in the ORF interview. “I’m gonna have to stick with that now. I’ll build on the two good official jumps.”

With his final jump at 139 meters, the ski flying world champion still missed five and more meters on the top trio. However, Ryoyu Kobayashi, Andreas Wellinger and Olympic champion Kamil Stoch had benefited from a stronger upwind in the finish.

Kobayashi’s coach shortened the run-up in the final after Stoch and Wellinger had landed at 144 and 145.5 m respectively and thus beyond the Hillsize (142). Nevertheless, the 22-year-old sailed to 147.5 m and thus equalled Kraft’s ski jump record from the previous year.

Kobayashi won with 310.4 points and no less than 22 points ahead of Olympic silver medallist Wellinger, who was on the podium again for the first time since the Winter Games. Cup defender Stoch has to wait for his first individual victory.

Of the seven Austrians, Manuel Fettner and Philipp Aschenwald also showed an improvement with ranks 15 and 16 respectively. The steps were small, but they went in the right direction, said routine Fettner.

Daniel Huber did not get along well with the jump as he did last year and only became 46th Gregor Schlierenzauer, who had been the best placed ÖSV jumper the day before in twelfth place, missed the qualification as did Michael Hayböck. The next two competitions will take place next weekend in Nizhny Tagil in Russia.