Jaka Hvala is the new Junior World Champion
The ski jumpers had their first chance to show their skills at the Junior World Championships in Liberec with the individual competition on Thursday. With Jaka Hvala from Slovenia, one of the top favorites celebrated a clear win and captured the Junior World Championship title. Poland's Klemens Muranka was second, followed by Austrian Stefan Kraft as third.
Under similar conditions to the ladies' competition earlier today, but with increasing tailwind, the spectators saw a competition on a high level and a well deserved winner. With the longest jump of the day on 103 m, Slovene Jaka Hvala lived up to his role as one of the favorites and was already in the lead after the first round. Yet another strong jump on 102 m in the final (283.5 points) earned him the gold medal: "My goal was to win this competition. I wanted to see how I can handle the pressure and it seems that I was able to handle it well. Of course I'm extremely happy", the winner said.
Klemens Muranka from Poland, who showed jumps on 101 m and 96 m, came in second and won the silver medal. This result is even more remarkable considering Muranka's recent history of health problems and the eye surgery he had to undergo to avoid going blind. "I'm very happy about my result today. I was able to show two good jumps and I really hoped that I can win a medal. I want to thank my coaches and everyone who supported me", Muranka said.
Adam Malysz sees strong Polish team
The third place went to Austrian Stefan Kraft who was also one of the favorites. "It was a bit more difficult today because of the tailwind. My trial jump was very good and fortunately I was also able to jump on the same level in the competition. Maybe more would have been possible, but I'm totally satisfied with the bronze medal", Kraft told after his jumps on 99 m and 95.5 m (258.5 points).
With Bartlomiej Klusek and Aleksander Zniszczol two more Polish jumpers were among the Top 10 as fourth and ninth. Adam Malysz, who arrived today in Liberec, was probably happy to see that.
The favorite athlete of the German team, Andreas Wellinger, could not keep up with the top jumpers today and with distances of 100 m and 95 m he finished fifth. He was followed by Japanese Reruhi Shimizu, his teammate Karl Geiger, Mats Soehagen Berggaard from Norway and Ronan Lamy Chappuis, cousin of nordic combined skier Jason Lamy Chappuis, who achieved Top 10 results as well.
Impressions of the JWSC in Liberec »