Third World Cup victory for ÖSV jumper Jan Hörl

Salzburg successfully defended its half-time lead on Sunday ahead of Slovenian veteran Peter Prevc and podium debutant Aleksander Zniszczol from Poland. World Cup leader Stefan Kraft (8th) kept his pursuers Ryoyu Kobayashi (5th) and Andreas Wellinger (7th) somewhat at a distance in once again adverse wind conditions.

After jumps of 124 and 134.5 m, Hörl had 1.9 points more than Prevc. “It was a really good weekend for me. The jumps were good, the form is still right, that makes ski jumping easy,” said Hörl. The 25-year-old thought he was in “flow”. “It wasn’t easy with the wind, it ate a few. I got a bit lucky and took advantage of it.” ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl praised his protégé, who had already finished fifth on Friday. “He did a really good job with perfect jumps.”

The second best Austrian was Manuel Fettner in sixth place thanks to a 134 m jump in the second round. Kraft, who missed the second round on Friday, struggled again with the wind in Finland, but managed to limit the damage in eighth place (122.5/122.5). After 24 of 32 competitions, he leads the overall World Cup by 196 points over Kobayashi.

“Every jump is a game of wind”

“It’s starting to annoy me a bit, it feels like every jump is a windy game at the moment. It’s not easy to stay calm and to yourself,” said Kraft, who was satisfied with his jumps. He wanted to charge his batteries and then move to Norway “with full energy” for the Raw Air series.

Michael Hayböck came tenth. The 18-year-old junior world champion Stephan Embacher (13th) jumped into the points for the fourth time in his sixth World Cup appearance. There was also something countable for the 51-year-old ski jumping legend Noriaki Kasai (28th). For Daniel Tschofenig, however, the competition was over after a 110 m jump in the first round.