Peter Prevc's victorious comeback in Sapporo

Only two other Slovenians earned points

Peter Prevc has a reason to smile again. Foto: EPA

After a somewhat underachieving season, Peter Prevc has found his top shape right before the world championship. He has returned to the top of the podium in Sapporo, sharing the victory with Maciej Kot.

The best ski jumper of the previous winter season indicated a promising result already in the qualifying round, where he outperformed his competitors by a wide margin. His jump in the trial round on Saturday was not as good (115.0 m) but he saved the best two jumps for last. He made excellent use of good weather conditions in the first round and performed the round’s convincingly best jump of 143 metres. However, he decided not to risk a telemark-landing, lost a few precious points and came up as third, behind Maciej Kot (+3.8 points) and Andreas Wellinger (+0.7 pts). Both landed at the 139-metre mark.

Even with less wind at the bottom
In the final round, Peter Prevc had much less support from wind under his skis than his rivals but still managed to jump 134 metres and launched himself to the top. Wellinger dropped in his performance, while Kot managed just enough to still enjoy gold. 3^rd place went to Stefan Kraft, who signalled his bid for the overall crystal globe.

Second podium this season
“I’m really glad it turned out the way it did today. It didn’t look to good after the trial jump, but we knew immediately what we had to change. I made two good jumps; I had a bit of luck with the conditions with the first one. It all came together nicely and it was really nice to hear the Slovenian anthem again. It looks like the lengthy time spent travelling to Japan helps you calm your mind, enabling you to perform the way you are supposed to. It worked. We’ll see if my head keeps on messing with me,” explained the oldest among Prevc brothers after celebrating his 22^nd win but only the second podium this season. The Slovenian had been in the lead after the 1^st round at the season opening in Ruka but dropped to third place after a fall in the final round.

Domen seems stuck in last place
The success of other Slovenian competitors was quite meagre. Only two have earned points: Anže Lanišek (24^th place) and Anže Semenič (26^th place). Jurij Tepeš just missed the finals (31^st, 117.5 m), while the rest were far from it: Cene Prevc (44.; 110,5), Jernej Damjan (47.; 110,5) and Domen Prevc (50.; 97,0). The youngest among Prevc brothers had the shortest jump in four of the five rounds in Sapporo.

The competition was quite unusual, as difficult conditions took the wind out of the sails of several favourites. The current World Cup leader, Kamil Stoch, was only 18^th, Michael Hayböck 19th and Domen Prevc in last place.

S. J., MMC; translated by K. Z.