Embacher in 6th place

Oslo Final Canceled! Naito Wins Wind Lottery

Tomofumi Naito(Bild: AP/Terje Pedersen)

The Ski Jumping World Cup competition at Oslo’s Holmenkollen was thrown into disarray by difficult wind conditions on Sunday! Japan’s Tomofumi Naito won the wind lottery after just one valid round, finishing 0.1 points ahead of Slovenia’s Anze Lanisek and 1.1 points ahead of Finland’s Antti Aalto. The top Austrian was Stephan Embacher in sixth place, who fell 7.2 points short of the podium. Daniel Tschofenig and Ryoyo Kobayashi (JPN), meanwhile, were completely blown out of contention...

Embacher navigated the gusty conditions solidly with a jump of over 127.5 meters. “It’s definitely quite a windy competition. You can get lucky or unlucky. I don’t think anyone can blame themselves,” the Tyrolean said on ORF TV. Manuel Fettner (127 meters) was the second-best ÖSV athlete in 13th place, while Stefan Kraft (119.5) finished 19th, just ahead of the previous day’s runner-up, Maximilian Ortner (126). Jonas Schuster (123.5/35th), Tschofenig (117.5/37th), and Lukas Haagen (116/43rd) came away empty-handed.

FIS Criticism from Widhölzl
For ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl, the cancellation of the second run was “absolutely necessary.” The first run hadn’t been right either. “I have to criticize the FIS here, because they were trying with all their might to force through a run just to get a result, and they basically didn’t give a damn about the athletes’ safety. It was really dangerous at times. We have to accept that, but it wasn’t cool,” the 49-year-old said bluntly.

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(Bild: www.fis-ski.com)

For Naito, it was his first World Cup victory. The 33-year-old had never previously stood on the podium in the World Cup. Slovenian World Cup dominator Domen Prevc, who finished 42nd on Saturday, came in ninth this time with a safety jump (127.5 m). To conclude the World Cup season, the ski flying competitions in Vikersund and Planica are now on the schedule.

Japanese Double Victory in Women’s ++ Eder Only 20th
Overall World Cup winner Nika Prevc failed to repeat her Saturday victory on her 21st birthday: Instead, somewhat surprisingly, a Japanese athlete, Yuki Ito, won, just 0.5 points ahead of her compatriot Nozomi Maruyama. The latter botched her landing in the second round, which cost her the victory.

Third place went once again to Norway’s Anna Odine Ström, who took points away from a once again lackluster Lisa Eder in the battle for third place overall. “I don’t know what’s going on either,” Eder puzzled, having been in eighth place after the first run but finishing 20th, right behind Julia Mühlbacher.