In Lillehammer

ÖSV eagles just miss the podium – Japanese wins

Stefan Kraft finished in fifth place.(Bild: GEPA)

One day after the triple victory at the World Cup opener, Austria's ski jumpers missed the podium in the second competition in Lillehammer. 

Stefan Kraft was the best Austrian in fifth place and led a strong team performance with four jumpers in the top nine. Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi celebrated his 36th World Cup victory 3.2 points ahead of Slovenia's Domen Prevc and 4.3 ahead of Germany's Felix Hoffmann.

ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Kraft made up one place with his second jump, but was 3.5 points short of the podium. "I felt that he was very good. But the others were all able to keep up," he explained in the ORF interview. The 32-year-old had finished third the day before and thus came very close to record holder Janne Ahonen.

Here is the result:

Kraft only 47 points behind Ahonen
Kraft has scored 15,711 World Cup points in his career so far and is now only 47 points behind the Finn's record. I hope I can crack it in Falun," said the man from Salzburg. There are two competitions on the program in Sweden on Tuesday and Wednesday.

  Daniel Tschofenig, who had led the red-white-red triumph on Saturday ahead of Jan Hörl and Kraft, finished seventh as the second best ÖSV jumper thanks to a strong second jump. They were followed by Jan Hörl and 19-year-old Stephan Embacher with his best World Cup result to date. "Mega, I was able to show some really cool jumps," said the teenager after ninth place.