On Friday Stefan Kraft became the first foreign ski jumper to win the individual competition on the renovated ski flying hill in Planica. Previous five matches had all been won by Slovenian fliers. In the first year on the renewed hill, Slovenians won the team competition, in 2016 they took second place but this year they finished in fifth place after a more promising third place in the first round. They ended up almost 30 points behind the Austrian team in fourth place and fifty points behind the Poles in third place. Another 10 points were won by silver Germans, while the winning team of Norway, which had already won last year, collected 100 points more than Slovenia owing to excellent performances of all four team members.
“We can do better, but this is our reality at the moment”
On Friday the Slovenian head coach Goran Janus admitted that the podium was on the wish list but had to amend the statement after Saturday’s match. In regard to the current abilities of the Slovenian eagles, the coach explained: “The first round was okay. But as far as the second round is concerned, we made a few mistakes. Here we are. We can do better, but this is our reality at the moment. The others messed up a bit in the 1st series but then stepped up the game. I would still like to congratulate my team. They did not make any crude errors, but every tiny detail counts here.”
“I don’t blame them. Fifth place is reality, but I’m sorry that the spectators didn’t get a treat,” added the coach of the Slovenian team, which will consist of five members on Sunday’s last competition of this winter season, since Anže Lanišek has also won a place in the final match in addition to Peter and Domen Prevc, Jurij Tepeš and Jernej Damjan.
Semenič had a great time in Planica
Slovenia had had an excellent start to the team competition, with Anže Semenič landing at 236 metres, which turned out to be Slovenia’s longest flight at the Saturday’s match. All four Slovenians performed well, in line with their current abilities, but lacked extremely long flights that other teams had. “The first jump was very good, but I made a stupid mistake in the second one. I lost a bit of control over my leg at the take-off table and I couldn’t fix this in the air. I just kept descending toward the ground like a rock. But all in all, I’m very satisfied with Planica. I have flown far, which was my goal. I had a great time. I’ve gone past the hill point several times. I’ve improved my personal best, which was also one of the goals,” explained Semenič, who lost quite a lot with 209,0 m in the final round.
Domen Prevc, on the other hand, was quite happy with his two flights, 221.5 m and 223.5 m: “Quite average flights, but I have to say I’ve made quite a progress since Friday. I’m starting to get the right sensations, I can already feel the atmosphere in Planica, it’s such a big crowd. I’m still trying to get a thorough feel of the ski flying hill, to figure out how exactly to jump. But I won’t worry too much about this. I’ll be relaxed for Sunday’s match. The flights are longer from day to day. This time there has been constant wind toward the end of the match, which is the most important thing. At the beginning, the wind had been turning up and down. It was a bit turbulent, but the conditions were fair. Unfortunately, the others were better than us. I’m a bit envious of those who’ve flown so far. One needs to be well-prepared and have stable jumps, which makes these distances possible.”
Peter Prevc no longer Planica record holder
In total, Peter Prevc flew furthest among the Slovenians with his 225.5 and 226.0 m long flights, but he didn’t get much further from the second red line: “I fought but lost the battle and got some wounded pride. I was stuck to the last red line, just like on Friday. If this were a 120-metre ski juping hill, this would have been a great result, but here all of the battle only starts from the last red line onwards. So I don’t feel much satisfaction.”
Since Saturday he is also no longer the record holder of the Planica ski flying hill. His 248.5-metre feat was beaten by Robert Johansson, Kraft and Kamil Stoch, who did not stop until reaching 251.5 metres: “I haven’t seen many records from underneath the hill. If you stand by the record mark, it’s hard to imagine that it’s even possible to fly so far. And then people joked that I was already having a bad season and then I also get taken a record. [Kraft and Stoch] are really well-prepared, Just like I was stringing long flights last year with ease, now these two are doing it. And the conditions were excellent. It’s was great that the two strongest competitors were able to make use of this. If I had had the same conditions, I definitely wouldn’t fly that far. It’s quite apparent that if one is in shape he can fly far safely. If that were someone with less experience, without motive and this winning streak, he would have quite a lot of trouble with the landing.”
Tilen Jamnik; translated by K. Z.
