Ski flying: The first half of the Kulm World Cup is in danger of falling through

“The next two days couldn’t be the easiest,” said competition director Harald Haim on Wednesday evening at the team captains meeting. If training and qualification are scheduled for Thursday, FIS race director Sandro Pertile has already presented Plan B if nothing works. The qualification would no longer apply.

Heavy rain and gusts of wind

Accordingly, they would start on Friday (11:30 a.m.) with two training jumps and the competition for all 47 named athletes would be scheduled for 2 p.m. However, there was still hope that at least training could be held on Thursday (11.30 a.m.), as the forecasts for the morning are slightly better than for the afternoon. Basically, rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday, sometimes heavy. Gusts of up to 40 km/h are forecast for Thursday afternoon. Things shouldn’t really get better until Saturday afternoon.

This should at least secure the two rounds of the individual competition on Saturday and the team competition on Sunday; the best wind conditions are also forecast for the World Cup final day. The preliminary flight on Wednesday had to be canceled after eight participants, but also because of wind network problems.

“It will definitely be difficult”

In the early evening it started to rain heavily in Ausseerland. “It will definitely be difficult tomorrow,” said Stefan Kraft, the home favorite. ÖSV coach Andreas Widhölzl: “Only the weather can throw a spanner in the works.”

Basically, Austria’s team for the Ski Flying World Championships recently put itself together. At the latest with the superior team success on Saturday in Zakopane, Kraft, Jan Hörl, Michael Hayböck and Manuel Fettner have forced themselves into the title fights, Widhölzl also sees it that way. “The quartet jumped very well. My goal is also not to bring any qualifying stress into the team. But I still want to watch the training.” So Daniel Tschofenig and Clemens Aigner have a chance to push one of the top four off the starting list.

Tschofenig is aggressive

Tschofenig did not take part in the Poland tour and instead completed special training with Widhölzl in Innsbruck and Seefeld over two weeks. Now the Carinthian is aggressive: “I want to get into the team. It will be difficult because they all jump very well and have a bonus. But I will give everything so that I can somehow get fourth place.”

Aigner, on the other hand, has always been part of the World Cup team since the tour, but ultimately ended up being the “fifth wheel on the car”. However, the now 30-year-old had good experiences with the Kulm six years ago when he finished seventh in the World Cup. “I had a really good time there, but most of the team had more ski flying experience.” Practice with a view to further ski flying this season is also important to him, as the Tyrolean emphasized.

Health setback for strength

Kraft has enough of this routine; he is a world record holder and two-time World Cup medalist in ski flying. However, he has had a health setback since Zakopane on Sunday, the day of his seventh World Cup victory. “I also skipped the test run,” said the overall World Cup leader when asked. “On Monday and Tuesday I had a bit of a sore throat, that’s gone now. Now I still have a bit of a cold.” However, he has already trained well again and is in good spirits.