Two Poles with points in Lillehammer. A bizarre reason for Paweł Wąsek’s disqualification

The form of Polish jumpers in the qualifications for the main competition was not optimistic. The best was Dawid Kubacki, who took 20th place with a jump of 119 meters. Aleksander Zniszczoł (127.5 m), Paweł Wąsek (122 m), Piotr Żyła (116 m) and Kamil Stoch (121 m) took 23rd, 35th, 38th and 43rd place, respectively. In Sunday’s competition we saw many long flights, but none of them were made by a Pole.

Poor jumps by Aleksander Zniszczoł and Kamil Stoch

The jumpers started the competition from the beam positioned in position number eight with the wind blowing at their backs. At the beginning we saw the jumps of four Norwegians, including: the famous Robert Johansson, but both he and his teammates performed far below expectations. Immediately after them, the starting position was taken by jumper number 12, Aleksander Zniszczoł. The 28-year-old Pole landed the farthest of all the White and Reds in the qualifications, but this time he jumped only 116.5 meters and with 13.7 points added for wind, he became the leader.

After a few more flights, he was overtaken only by Eetu Nousiainen, who reached 120.5 meters. Kamil Stoch took the starting position with number 28. The three-time Olympic champion performed poorly in training sessions and did not perform well in qualifying, and it was no different in the first series. He landed on 118 meters and took seventh place at that moment, which boded badly for a potential promotion to second place. Simon Ammann performed surprisingly well. The experienced jumper reached 124 meters and became the leader.

Paweł Wąsek was not allowed to take part in the competition. A strange reason

The Swiss’ joy did not last long, because after a while his compatriot Killian Peier pushed him to the second position. The third of Thomas Thurnbichler’s charges was supposed to be Paweł Wąsek, but for unknown reasons he did not appear on the landing hill. Eurosport commentators said that the reason was the disappearance of his bag with equipment. A moment later, Piotr Żyła, who had the best performance in Ruka, sat on the starting beam. Unfortunately, this time he could not boast a good result, because his landing on 120.5 m gave him seventh place.

Shortly afterwards, Dawid Kubacki, who had recently been struggling with health problems, made his jump. It wasn’t the flight we wanted to see because he jumped exactly as much as the 36-year-old. Initially, he was the first in the waiting list, losing 0.2 points to Żyła, but ultimately he was in the second round. The change in the leading position had to wait until Vladimir Zografski’s flight, which jumped 123.5 meters. Marius Lindvik performed the best of all the competitors so far, landing on 129 meters.

Two Poles in the final series

Manuel Fettner was the first to cross the 130-meter mark, 131.5 to be precise. Halvor Egner Granerud performed below expectations because he only reached 119 meters. Ryoyu Kobayashi made an excellent jump, flying as much as 133 meters, but he did not take the lead. Karl Geiger flew even further, with 136.5, and replaced Fettner as the leader. Jan Hoerl showed a phenomenal flight. The Austrian jumped 139 meters and was 2.3 points ahead of the German. Pius Paschke achieved the same distance and the judges lowered the run to 7th position. The winner of the first series was Stefan Kraft.

Poles’ places:

• 29. Piotr Żyła,

• 30. Dawid Kubacki,

• 33. Aleksander Zniszczoł,

• 37. Kamil Stoch,

• DNS. Paweł Wasek.

Stefan Kraft with a complete set of victories after four World Cup competitions

At the beginning of the second series, the wind was blowing relentlessly from behind. The jumpers started jumping from beam no. 9, and Dawid Kubacki was the first to jump on it. This time it looked a little better and the 33-year-old reached 128 meters. Right after him, the second and last Pole, Piotr Żyła, jumped. He landed two meters closer, but he jumped in much worse wind conditions, which resulted in him receiving as many as 20 points. It wasn’t enough to overtake his teammate. Johann Andre Forfang did it, jumping 129 meters. His compatriot Halvor Egner Granerud improved his distance from the first series, landing on 131.5 meters.

The winner of the Crystal Ball from the 2022/2023 season did not enjoy the lead for long, because Antti Aalto overtook him after a while. Vladimir Zografski did not take a high position this time, because his jump of 126.5 meters gave him third place. The Finn was overtaken by Anze Laniska, who jumped as much as the Bulgarian. Philipp Raimund reached 131.5 meters, the same as Daniel Tschofenig, but the German scored more points. Peter Prevc made a fantastic jump and the furthest jump in the competition so far, landing on 140 meters and taking the lead by 7.4 points.

Despite the long flights, the judges did not decide to lower the position of the starting beam. Stephan Leyhe jumped 138 meters and lost by 0.5 points to the Slovenian. Ryoyu Kobayashi flew 143 meters and became the new leader. Pius Paschke (140 meters), Michael Hayboeck (139.5), Marius Lindvik (138.5) and Manuel Fettner (137.5) failed to beat the Japanese. Only Andreas Wellinger did it, reaching exactly the same distance as Kobayashi, and after Karl Geiger’s jump (139 meters), it became clear that he would stand on the podium. Jan Hoerl jumped 137.5 meters and Stefan Kraft 141.5 meters and won the entire competition.

Poles’ places:

• 22. Dawid Kubacki,

• 25. Piotr Żyła.