German team in sixth place
Bad falls overshadow aborted ski flight in Planica
March 23, 2024, 11:53 a.m
Austria wins the team flying in Planica, but the focus is on the numerous falls at the Ski Flying World Cup. Before the competition was canceled after the first round due to strong winds, some athletes were hit hard.
The last team flight of the ski jumping winter was canceled after only one round due to wind and numerous falls. The world association FIS initially postponed the start of the second round in Planica several times and then declared an early end. “There is no other option. The wind has increased extremely,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF.
His team with Karl Geiger, Stephan Leyhe, Pius Paschke and Andreas Wellinger did not get beyond a disappointing sixth place among nine teams. “We are not terribly satisfied. We hope that we can fly again tomorrow,” said the Austrian Horngacher. At the World Cup in Kulm at the end of January, Germany won bronze with the same line-up, but now they were a good 36 meters short of the podium with 726.6 points. “That wasn’t so good. We can’t get the speed into the flight here,” said Horngacher. Only Paschke impressed with a flight to 221.0 meters.
The victory went to the Austrians (803.8 points) with the two top flyers Stefan Kraft and Daniel Huber. With 244 meters, Huber demonstrated the longest flight of the day. Second place went to hosts Slovenia (793.3) with the fallen Timi Zajc. Norway came third (770.6). Immediately after the end of the first round the wind picked up significantly. “It’s very turbulent. The athletes are extremely tired, you don’t have to risk pointlessly,” said Austria’s head coach Andreas Widhölzl.
Ambulance transports fallen Bresadola
Even without the unpredictable wind of up to eight meters per second, falls had occurred on the huge facility in Slovenia. On Saturday, in addition to Zajc (242.5 meters), the Italian Giovanni Bresadola, who was taken away in an ambulance, and the American Decker Dean were also hit.
Bresadola flew 226 meters, but then fell after the jump. His left knee lost stability immediately after jumping up and the 23-year-old hit his head at high speed. Bresadola initially remained lying down and was treated by paramedics in the exit of the huge facility. After a break of around ten minutes, the team flying continued. “The knee doesn’t look good. I wish him all the best,” said Geiger.
The Finn Eetu Nousiainen tore a cruciate ligament in a fall on Thursday, as did the German team world champion Görlich. Bresadola is now facing a similar diagnosis. The Kazakh Sergei Tkachenko and the American Casey Larson also fell on Thursday.
On Sunday (9.30 a.m./ZDF and Eurosport) The individual World Cup final is on the program. Only the 30 best in the overall World Cup are allowed to start, from Germany these are Wellinger, Paschke, Geiger and Leyhe. The Austrian Kraft, Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi and Germany’s Olympic champion Wellinger have already been confirmed as the top three of the overall World Cup in that order. The ski jumping season has already ended after a competition on the normal hill in Planica on Thursday.