47th win in the World Cup for Gregor Schlierenzauer
Gregor Schlierenzauer became a sports legend in Harrachov today. On the Certak ski flying hill Schlierenzauer jumped on 193.5 m and 211 m (421.7 points) and achieved his 47th win in the World Cup. In a extremely close competition the Austrian won with the tiny margin of 0.3 points ahead of Robert Kranjec of Slovenia (197 m and 204 ; 421.4 points). The third place went to local hero Jan Matura (206 m and 183.5 m; 389.1 points).
The competition, that started already at 9:00 am CET because it could take place on Saturday due to the strong wind, and was held under difficult conditions. The wind was changing to head wind during the first round and so jury had to reduce the inrun length various times in the first round.
"It was a tough and difficult competitions today because of the wind conditions. The jury did a good job today. I had the necessary luck that you need on a day like this. I don't know what to say right now, it's unbelievable. It's great to be a legend. I want to thank everyone who supported me", Schlierenzauer said after his historic win.
Robert Kranjec was satisfied with his second place after the hard fight with Schlierenzauer: "It was extremely difficult today due to the wind and the delays were really long. It was very cold up there when I had to wait for my jump. Now I'm happy for Gregor that he could take his 47th win today."
Jan Matura was also happy with this competition: "It was very difficult to jump because of the wind conditions. Of course it's special to be on the podium in front of a home crowd."
Behind the Top 3, Norwegian Andreas Stjernen once again proved his ski flying skills as fourth. Like already last weekend in Vikersund he was the best Norwegian and missed the podium closely with his jumps on 200 m and 187 m.
Jurij Tepes jumps on incredible 220 m, at least!
Slovenia's Jurij Tepes caused a moment of shock with his incredible jump on 220 m (hill record on the Certak-hill: 214.5 m). Tepes had good head wind during the second part of his jump and probably could've jumped ten meters longer. Tepes fell, but he stood up immediately and celebrated his outstanding jump.
"I'm sure that this jump was farther than 220 m", Tepes was later disappointed by the measured distance. The distance measuring systems ends at 215 m, so the distance was measured manually. Despite his fall Tepes was ninth after the first round and came in 15th overall. Besides Tepes, also Peter Prevc and Jaka Hvala showed a good performance as fifth and sixth. The Slovenes are by far the best ski flyers.
Austrians stronger again
Wolfgang Loitzl showed strong jumps on 212 m and 180 m. He finished seventh. His teammate Martin Koch was tenth. Michael Hayboeck and Lukas Mueller were 23rd and 25th and completed the good team result of the Austrians.
Michael Neumayer landed on shared seventh place with Loitzl. Yet another strong performance of the 34-year-old veteran in the team of head coach Werner Schuster. In absence of Severin Freund and Richard Freitag it was not a very good competition for the Germans: Maximilian Mechler was 20th, Marinus Kraus 33rd. Felix Schoft (36th) and Andreas Wank (39th) could not qualify for the final round.
The Polish team showed a good team performance, but could not achieve a top result. Kamil Stoch (9th), Krzystof Mietus (14th), Maciej Kot (16th), Piotr Zyla (22th) and Dawid Kubacki (30th) reached the second round and scored points for the Nations' Cup.