Kraft and Huber dominate Vikersund

The two Austrians Stefan Kraft and Daniel Huber dominated the Super Ski Flying Sunday in Vikersund (NOR). The two each won a competition, first Kraft ahead of Huber, then Huber ahead of Kraft. Stefan Kraft also won the overall Raw Air 2024 ranking and secured an early victory in the overall World Cup.

This is Stefan Kraft’s third Raw Air victory and third time winning the overall World Cup. The day’s victory is his 13th success this winter. Kraft is the dominator of the winter, the Salzburg native also won the title of Ski Flying World Champion at Kulm in February.

“That was a sensational raw air. The victory today is of course the perfect end. I didn’t expect to make it onto the podium in the overall Raw Air rankings,” explained Huber, who won the second competition of the day, the three-run super final.
Huber had dropped back to 21st place overall in the second Raw Air competition in Oslo after missing the second run.
The 31-year-old then worked his way back up place by place and ended up in third place in the overall Raw Air rankings. “The Raw Air is decided in ski flying, that was shown again today, I’m super-happy that I was able to confirm that with my flights today,” said Huber.
The Austrians not only celebrated the daily and raw air victories of Huber and Kraft, but also Stefan Kraft’s early victory in the overall World Cup 2023/24. With two individual competitions still to come in Planica next weekend, Kraft has a clear lead of 430 points over Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi (9th and 11th place today). 
Austria is also celebrating a more than clear success in the World Cup team ranking.
Head coach Andreas Widhoelzl has formed an enormously strong team around Stefan Kraft in recent years, which is particularly evident now at the end of the season.

But the Slovenians, who are traditionally strong in ski flying, were also able to celebrate: Domen Prevc in the first competition and Timi Zajc in the second competition took third place, as well as Peter Prevc’s fantastic second place in the overall Raw Air rankings.
The coming weekend in Planica (SLO) will be dominated by Peter Prevc’s farewell, and the already legendary atmosphere in Planica could reach a new dimension in 2024.

In contrast, there was little to gain for the other teams. In the second competition, Aleksander Zniszczol (7th), Andreas Wellinger {9th) and Gregor Deschwanden (10th) achieved top 10 places, with all other top 10 places going to Austria and Slovenia.
“It was a new mode here today, I think the waiting times between the runs are still a bit too long. Unfortunately, we started badly at this Raw Air, then things went better in Trondheim. In ski flying, we are currently a bit behind the world leaders, which was already apparent in Oberstdorf. We accept Andreas Wellinger’s sixth place at this Raw Air, of course we want more, but sometimes you have to cut back in sport,” explained german national coach Stefan Horngacher.
For the ski jumpers, the big ski flying season finale in Planica (SLO) follows next weekend. The last three competitions of the winter are on the calendar there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday