COC-M: First win for Rok Justin
The season's final of the Continental Cup takes place in Nizhny Tagil this weekend. These are the first international competitions in the new Russian ski jumping center. The first competition on Saturday was held on the normal hill instead of the large hill due to strong wind.
The best in this competition was Rok Justin of Slovenia. The 19-year-old already had a clear lead after his jump on 96 m in the first round and he then captured his first ever win in the COC with 94.5 m in the final and a total of 250.5 points. "It's my first time in Nizhny Tagil and I really like the hill. There was a wind delay before my final jump and I felt a little bit nervous. But I could handle the situation and show a good jump."
The Russians could celebrate a very good result of local hero Alexander Sardyko. With 90.5 m he was seventh at half-time and with the longest jump of the day on 98 m (244.5 points) he moved up to second overall. "I felt very calm and confident before my final jump today and it helped me to finish second."
With jumps on 93.5 m and 94 m and his total of 237.5 points, the third place on Saturday went to Jan Ziobro of Poland.
Ilmir Hazetdinov was not able to defend his third place after the first round and finished fourth, but still the Russian achieved the best result of his career so far.
The next few places went to jumpers of Austria and Germany. Best Austrian was 17-year-old Elias Tollinger as fifth, for him this was a career best in the COC as well. He was followed by the best German Pius Paschke (6th), his teammate Markus Schiffner (7th) and Marinus Kraus of Germany (8th).
Krzyzstof Biegun of Poland as ninth and Norway's Fredrik Bjerkeengen (10th) could also achieve Top 10 results.
The two Slovenes Anze Semenic (667 points) and Matic Benedik (651 points) are still leading the overall ranking of the COC. Both did not travel to Russia, but are competing in the World Cup right now. Close behind the two leaders, Fredrik Bjerkeengen is now third with 650 points.