Weakened by the absence of David Kubacki, the Polish jumpers took part in the prologue to the competition in Vikersund. Sunday’s competition is the last in the Raw Air cycle this year, so each of the white-reds probably wanted to say goodbye to this fight with dignity.
The Sunday prologue in Vikersund began without David Kubacki, who pulled out of the series for personal reasons. In connection with this decision, Halvor Egner Granerud, four competitions before the end (including in Vikersund), became the owner of the second Crystal Ball in his career, which allowed him to enter the history of Norwegian ski jumping, because in the past none of his compatriots twice won the world championships.
Prologue in Vikersund: Stenkala did not reach 200 meters. Life ration stick
The first of the white-reds to report the log was Andrzej Stenkala. The athlete, who came instead of Jakub Volna, reached only 189 meters, which did not allow him to qualify for the competition.
Paweł Vansek was next, climbing 216.5 meters. It was a special moment for our representative, who broke his personal record with this attempt, and also secured himself access to the competition scheduled for 16:30
Piotr Zhyla released
The third Pole on balance beam was Aleksander Zniszhol, who jumped only 204.5 meters and, like his younger teammate, qualified for the competition. In turn, Kamil Stoch did not sit on the beam for a long time, because the judges almost immediately gave the go-ahead to the Master from Zomba. The three-time Olympic champion jumped 9.5 meters further than his 29-year-old compatriot, who also secured a promotion but did not lead.
Before the jump of Ryoyu Kobayashi, the organizers thought for five minutes about which beam the Japanese should jump from. This was due to the gusty wind, which once blew under the skis and once in the back. In the end, it was decided to take beam No. 12, which is one higher than Chofenig jumped, and two lower than the one Geiger started from. After some time, the jury finally made a decision and the qualification could continue.
Shortly before Petr Zhyla’s jump, the organizers once again raised the bar by one, because the conditions were very difficult. Unfortunately, this did not help the Polish representative, who flew only 187.5 meters, which, fortunately, gave him promotion to the competition from a distant position. The qualification before the final competition in Vikersund as part of Raw Air was won by Stefan Kraft, the second was Halvor Egner Granerud ex aequo with Robert Johansson.
Source: Wprost
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