Severin Freund celebrated his seventh win this season in Trondheim and took the lead in the overall World Cup. In a sometimes turbulent competition, the German won with jumps on 135 m and 139 m and 265.3 points. Peter Prevc and local hero Rune Velta came in second and third.

Stefan Kraft had back luck today. With a jump on 142.5 m, the 4-Hills-Tournament winner had a lead of 12 points over Freund after the first round. Then he had to get off the starting bar twice due to too strong wind. When he was finally allowed to jump, part of his binding broke off during the flight. The Austrian could artistically avoid a fall and with 124 m and a total of 234.0 points he finished ninth.

Freund with tempered joy

After this incident, Severin Freund didn't want to celebrate his win enthusiastically. “Of course I'm happy. It's my first podium result here in Trondheim. A lot is working really well for me right now, but you don't want to win like that. The competition shall be decided with the performances on the hill and not through luck. Big compliment to Stefan Kraft, that he was able to avoid a fall in his jump. He probably had some guardian angels.”

Stefan Kraft added: “It's a pity, the jump was very good again and it would have probably been enough to win. Thank God nothing bad happened. If this happens in Planica it would have a different outcome. So it was a happy end.”

Peter Prevc showed jumps on 137.5 m and 136 m for a total of 255.1 points. The Slovene said afterwards: “It was a quite tough competition with changing winds and a lot of gate changes. I'm happy that I had some luck with the wind this time and that I was able to show good jumps and achieve a good result." World Champion Rune Velta followed 7.9 points behind with jumps on 134 m and 141.5 m. The Norwegian said: “My second jump was almost perfect, so it was really nice. The crowd was amazing. It was a perfect competition in Norway. I'm looking forward to Oslo, we are strong now as a team and we try to fight for the podium there as well."

Also Michael Hayboeck had to experience that it's very thin line between victory and defeat. The Austrian set a new hill record with 143 m in the first round, but with strong head wind he had -20 points in the wind compensation. With 132 m in the final and 245.3 points he came in fourth.

Bardal fifth in home event

Anders Bardal showed his good shape on his home hill and finished fifth with 129.5 m and 137 m and 240.1 points. It was a successful day also for Jurij Tepes, who came in on a good sixth place with 237.6 points, followed by Roman Koudelka in seventh with 235.7 points. 0.5 points behind, Gregor Schlierenzauer was eighth, ahead of his teammate Stefan Kraft. Noriaki Kasai was tenth with 233.3 points. Johann Andre Forfang in eleventh and Anders Jacobsen in 16th scored some important points for Norway in the fight for the Nation's Cup.

Besides the winner Severin Freund, only Richard Freitag in 14th, behind Kamil Stoch and Junshiro Kobayashi, and Andreas Wank in 22nd could score points for the leading German team. Daiki Ito was 15th. Once again Cene Prevc showed a good performance in 18th, Simon Ammann, third in Kuopio, is still lacking consistency and was only 23rd in Trondheim. French Vincent Descombes Sevoie also scored a World Cup point in 30th.

Freund takes Yellow Bib

With four individual competitions in Oslo and Planica left this winter, Severin Freund (1443 points) now has a lead of 34 points over Peter Prevc, Stefan Kraft follows additional 12 points behind in third. Anders Fannemel (1124 points) and Roman Koudelka (1075 points) only have a theoretical chance to win the overall title. The fight for the Nation's Cup is getting more and more exciting. The Norwegians made up another 27 points to Germany, with 4704 points they are now 255 points behind. With more individual competitions and one team competition in Planica the Norwegians still have a good chance to win the overall title.

The World Cup continues on Saturday on the Holmenkollen in Oslo.