Ski jumping has been with me almost my whole life, and yet there are aspects that fascinate me again and again. At the moment it’s the miracle of aerodynamics: As a trainer, I’ve dealt with this topic a lot, but since I got my private pilot’s license, I’ve been thinking in completely new dimensions. Every time I delve into this field, I learn and get creative. At some point, as a trainer, you become blind to the business, but not all possibilities have been exhausted by a long shot.
For the start of the season for ski jumpers, the safety variant was chosen from all the options: At the start, the World Cup doesn’t get in each other’s way and you are independent of the snow, because you land on mats. But what comes next? The enthusiasm for ski jumping fizzles out in an overly long break in competitions, the second men’s competition at the end of November in Kuusamo takes place parallel to the World Championship games. Wouldn’t there have been more innovative variants? Three weekends in a row on mats or flexible on snow, a break during the parallel games at the World Cup or even a start in December?
In any case, the ÖSV teams will be well prepared and fully motivated at the weekend in Wisla. I’m particularly excited to see how Manuel Fettner, Daniel Tschofenig and Michael Hayböck do. For Fettner, the Olympics were an initial spark, he was also at the front at the Summer GP. Tschofenig is turning out to be a future top performer, and Hayböck has pleasantly surprised me with his four victories in the Continental Cup. It is not easy for an established World Cup athlete to assert oneself in the second division. Perhaps he developed that “killer instinct” there that he has often lacked until now.
Poland and the Super Eagles
Personally, I’m of course also excited to see how the Polish team performs. The Tyrolean Thomas Thurnbichler has been in charge of Stoch and Co. since spring. With Marc Nölke and Mathias Hafele, he has two of my most important companions from the Superadler era at his side. A lot has happened in Poland, both physically and mentally and in terms of material – it was not for nothing that Dawid Kubacki was able to clearly win the Summer Grand Prix. For me, the Poles are among the clear favorites at the start on their home hill.
Kramer than hope
In the women’s category, I’m assuming that defending champion Sara Marita Kramer will set the tone again with the strong Slovenians. Unfortunately, the ski jumpers even have to wait until the beginning of December before they can start chasing points again. In terms of preparation, it’s very difficult, especially since there was already a month’s break between the Summer Grand Prix and the start of the World Cup.
Hayböck and Kramer in the top field in qualifying
With the exception of Jan Hörl (55th), all Austrian ski jumpers have qualified for today’s first of two World Cup competitions in Wisla. Behind the Polish local hero Dawid Kubacki (133 meters), Michael Hayböck (128 m) took fifth place – directly ahead of Daniel Tschofenig and Manuel Fettner. With Philipp Aschenwald, a fourth ÖSV “Adler” made it into the top ten in tenth place. Daniel Huber was 20th, Stefan Kraft 21st. In the women’s World Cup title defender Sara Marita Kramer took fourth place with a distance of 121.5 meters. Eva Pinkelnig was seventh. Chiara Kreuzer (16th), Hannah Wiegele (20th) and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger (23rd) from SC Waldzell also progressed.
Source: Nachrichten
