Kraft and Granerud celebrate in Vikersund

Stefan Kraft won the final ski flying event of RAW AIR in Vikersund (NOR) on Sunday. The 29-year-old Austrian triumphed for the first time in ski flying on the HS 240 meters Monsterbakken in Vikersund and celebrated his 29th World Cup victory. Behind Kraft, Halvor Egner Granerund and Slovenia’s Anze Lanisek finished second and third.

The final of the RAW AIR 2023 was dominated by the duel between Stefan Kraft and Halvor Egner Granerud. Both athletes once again delivered outstanding performances and in the end both could be celebrated as winners. Kraft won the day with spectacular flights, Granerud celebrated the overall victory at the RAW AIR (50.000,- Euro) and additionally the early win of the overall World Cup, which Granerud could celebrate already before the start of the competition, because his only remaining competitor, the Pole Dawid Kubacki, had cancelled his start due to private reasons.

“It’s an incredible feeling. We were close before, but now we finally have a Norwegian winner in a Norwegian tournament, and that is a terrific feeling. It’s fantastic to win such a tough tournament.
It was tough, Stefan jumped so incredibly well here in Vikersund, and yes, I just managed to hold him off, even though he always jumps so incredibly far.
Stefan delivered an incredible performance here, he must be a crazy guy to jump so far so often, and I’m super proud to have won” explained Granerud.

For his part, Kraft, unimpressed by his crash on Friday, delivered another outstanding competition: 246.5 and 235.5 meters flew Kraft far: “It was a perfect end of the RAW AIR, two great jumps, the first one was again very close to the limit and 246.5 was pure adrenaline and the second one was really great with tough conditions and I think it was a great fight with Halvor and yes we had 10 great ski jumping days. It was really tough, I put a lot of pressure on Halvor on that hill, he always had the advantage of jumping after me and being able to go down with the gate, he saw that I jumped far so that was a little bit of an advantage but he really jumped very well and jumps at a really high level and he deserved the win” Kraft showed himself as a great second. “I need a few days rest after my crash, then all will be well again” said Kraft.
Granerud, meanwhile, also had reason to celebrate with second place. The 26-year-old Norwegian became the first Norwegian to secure victory in the Raw Air standings and also the overall World Cup for the second time after the 2020/21 season. Granerud has an unassailable lead over Kubacki with 466 points with four competitions still to go.
Kamil Stoch came in 8th, Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden finished 11th ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi and Germany’s Andreas Wellinger and Markus Eisenbichler. 

For the men, the World Cup continues next weekend in Lahti, Finland, where two individual jumps are on the program