The Slovenians dominated the men’s first large hill training session at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica. Timi Zajc and Domen Prevc each won one of three rounds on their home base on Wednesday, while Anze Lanisek, third in the World Cup, made it into the top three twice. A heat went to the Norwegian World Cup leader Halvor Egner Granerud. Zajc marked the daily maximum with 134 m. Of the Austrians, Stefan Kraft made the best impression.
The defending champion posted distances of 128.0 and 131.5 m, among other things, and came in third once. “It’s not easy to jump, that hill,” Salzburg summed up. But he got in better than on the normal hill. “There are still a few small mistakes, but it has gotten better from jump to jump. I feel like it’s clear what to do. We haven’t even worn the best suit yet. I believe that we will certainly fight for the medals.”
Manuel Fettner, who was not included in the normal hill, completed the unit with a 129.0 m jump. “From the first jump it felt like ski jumping, I’m competitive again,” emphasized the Tyrolean. “We started without any pressure because we have five starting positions. The others had to uncover more.” Daniel Tschofenig and Michael Hayböck didn’t get along quite so well during the first scan, Jan Hörl had the most deficits. Hayböck: “It can still be improved.”