March 18, 2017, a date that Stefan Kraft will probably never really forget. On the ski flying hill in Vikersund (Northern), which bears the martial name “Monsterbakken”, the ÖSV eagle landed at 253.5 meters – a new world record. Now he goes hunting again. At the Ski Flying World Championships starting tomorrow, Kraft, who still proudly displays the fabulous width from back then on his hood, is one of the big favorites after recent strong results and the overall victory in the Raw Air series.
“You wish for a flow like that. Now I can let it run. It’s nice when you get there in such good shape,” says the 28-year-old.
Last season at the ski flying title fights in Planica, where Michael Hayböck from Theningen was an ungrateful fourth, Kraft didn’t take part at all due to back problems. But that’s old news. For the title fights in Norway, he now had his family and girlfriend Marisa flown in to keep his fingers crossed. “I’ve been looking forward to the event all season,” says the man from Salzburg, who has yet to win the individual ski flying World Championship title.
The defending champion is Karl Geiger, the German won the last edition of the World Cup ahead of the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud and his compatriot Markus Eisenbichler. The team title had gone to Norway.
Source: Nachrichten
