Austria’s quintet for the men’s large hill competition at the World Championships in Planica certainly qualified on Thursday for the competition on Friday (from 5.20 p.m., live on ORF1). As the best domestic jumper, defending champion Stefan Kraft made it into sixth place with a distance of 128.5 m.
Kraft best Austrian in qualification
Immediately behind him, his team colleague Jan Hörl, who came up with a hatch more run-up to 134.5 m, landed in seventh place. Daniel Tschofenig and Michael Hayböck were eleventh and 14th after 132.5 and 131.5 m respectively. Manuel Fettner made it into the main competition as 20th with 127.0 m.
Victory in qualifying went to Slovenian local hero Timi Zajc, who jumped 136.0 m with the same run-up as Kraft and took the lead with 5.4 points and 5.6 points ahead of the two Poles, Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch. World Cup leader Halvor Egner Granerud safely qualified for the competition in ninth place.