World Cup leader Halvor Egner Granerud from Norway won the Ski Jumping World Cup in Lillehammer on Tuesday. Granerud prevailed in a thrilling final ahead of the two Austrians Stefan Kraft and Manuel Fettner. For Granerud it was the overall 24th World Cup victory, the first World Cup victory on home soil
Stefan Kraft was still in the lead with 8.8 points ahead of Granerud after the first round and thus also regained the lead in the RAW AIR overall ranking in the meantime. But then Granerud managed an outstanding jump in the final round and Kraft made a small mistake, so the lead in the RAW AIR overall ranking changed again.
“My first jump was great, then in the second round the conditions were tough and the jump was also a bit late at the table and Halvor showed an outstanding jump,” explained Kraft, who is now second in the RAW AIR overall ranking with 5 points behind Granerud.
Austrian Manuel Fettner was happy about third place: “I had a great second jump today and surely also some luck with the conditions because I could jump exactly at sunset and when the sun is gone, the wind is also less” said Fettner for whom it was the 5th podium place of his career in the 306th World Cup start.
Behind Granerud, Kraft and Fettner, Daniel Tschofenig in fourth place ensured an outstanding team result for the Austrians. Austria leads the Nations Cup with 5164 points clearly ahead of the team from Norway 4390 points.
Karl Geiger finished the competition as the best German representative on 5th place, “I am satisfied with the 5th place, that’s good It is always the same here in Lillehammer, at some point the wind turns during the competition, but for me it was ok,” said Geiger. Directly behind Geiger Johann Andre Forfang (NOR), Ziga Jelar (SLO) and Ryoyu Kobayashi placed 6th – 8th.
For the men the RAW AIR continues already tomorrow with the qualification for the second competition in Lillehammer. Start of the qualification is at 19:15, the competition on Thursday will start at 16:30, before the two final Ski Flying competitions in Vikersund are scheduled for the weekend.
