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“Very happy”: Kraft and Fettner on the Lillehammer podium

“Very happy”: Kraft and Fettner on the Lillehammer podium
Stefan Kraft (AUT)
Photo: (GEPA PICTURES/ PATRICK STEINER)

Last year’s winner Kraft was only 2.3 points short of his 29th World Cup victory, Fettner caught up 13 places in the second round and finished third (-21.8). Just a tenth of a point behind, Daniel Tschofenig narrowly missed out on the podium in fourth place.

“I’m very, very happy with second place. I’m glad that I have the hill under control. In the end, the updraft became less and less,” said Kraft after jumps of 138.5 and 132 meters in an ORF interview. With his 93rd place on the podium, the 29-year-old from Salzburg overtook Adam Malysz from Poland in the all-time list of the best, only Janne Ahonen from Finland (108) was more often on the podium than the ex-world champion.

World Cup dominator and qualifier Halvor Egner Granerud defended his lead in the Raw Air Total Score ahead of Kraft, who is now five points behind. The Slovenian Anze Lanisek in third place is already almost 60 points behind. For Granerud it was the 24th World Cup victory, the eleventh this winter, the first ever at home. “It feels fantastic to finally have won in Norway. That’s very special,” said the 26-year-old, who surpassed Kraft in the final with 139.5 meters.

With a leap to 138 meters with an upwind, Fettner started to catch up, for the veteran it was the second podium finish of the season. “Of course that’s very good. The little bit of luck always has to be right. The last few times the wind was bad for me, today it turned around again,” said the 37-year-old. Jan Hörl (12th) and Michael Hayböck (13th) completed an excellent team result for ÖSV, but both were unlucky in the second round with worsening wind conditions.

The Raw Air series is the Scandinavian counterpart to the Four Hills Tournament, nine days in a row there are qualifications and competitions to be completed. The points achieved in the qualification are counted. It continues in Lillehammer on Wednesday and Thursday before the decision is made at the weekend with two ski flying competitions in Vikersund.

Before the competition in Lillehammer, however, there had been criticism of the World Ski Federation FIS, the conditions in the 1994 Olympic site caused trouble. Thomas Thurnbichler, Poland’s head coach, spoke of an organizational catastrophe. “We arrived at the facility and there were no real tables in the service booths. There was no real food for the jumpers and before the scheduled start of the competition we had no information about what was really going on,” said the Tyrolean. On Tuesday, according to race director Sandro Pertile, the committee made significant improvements after an emergency meeting with the organizing committee.

more from Nordic skiing

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Nordic Combined: Lamparter third in Riiber win in Oslo

An eleventh place was enough for an early victory in the overall World Cup

Strength second at Holmenkollen – victory for Lanisek

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