Severin Freund won the first World Cup competition in Nizhny Tagil. With jumps on 132 m and 134 m and a total of 260.0 points, the World Champion took a clear win ahead of Peter Prevc and Joachim Hauer. It was his 20th win in the World Cup.

Freund said afterwards: “It's really extremely cool to have won 20 World Cup competitions. It's huge when you win your first World Cup, then you don't even dream about having 20 wins one day. It's an amazing day. It helped me a lot that I was able to train on a higher technical level this summer than in the years before. In the recent years I was always struggling a bit in summer and got fit just in time for the winter. This was totally different this year and, of course, this makes it easier now."

Peter Prevc, second in last season's overall World Cup, jumped on 131 m and 123 m and scored 248.5 points. The Slovene told later: "In today's competition everyone needed a bit of luck because the wind conditions were difficult. I think I had that luck, especially in the first round. In the second round it was a bit harder but I'm jumping consistently on a high level and so I'm satisfied. In such conditions you need self confidence, you have to trust in yourself and focus on your jump."

Norwegian streak continues

Joachim Hauer showed jumps on 133.5 m and 129.5 m for 243.7 points and achieved his first podium in the World Cup in third. He is already the fifth Norwegian who was on the podium in the fourth individual competition this season. Hauer said: "I was jumping really good recently. I didn't expect to achieve such a top result so soon. I thought that I might get in the Top 10 and to be on the podium now is really great. It seems that we are pushing each other in our team. It's inspiring and we have a really good spirit in our team at the moment. I think I shouldn't have too high expectations now for tomorrow's competition. I would be satisfied with a Top 20 result."

The Norwegians once again showed an outstanding team performance today. Andreas Stjernen came in fourth, one point behind Hauer, with jumps on 123 m and 130 m, Johann Andre Forfang came in fifth with 125 m and 126.5 m and 241.0 points. Daniel Andre Tande was sixth with 235.2 points and Kenneth Gangnes finished eighth with 230.0 points. This means five Norwegians were in the Top 10. World record holder Anders Fannemel achieved another top result in 12th.

Career-best for Lanisek

Anze Lanisek, who came in on a career-best seventh place in the World Cup with 232.1 points, also had reason to celebrate. Manuel Fettner was the best of the Austrians in ninth with 226.1 points, Simon Ammann achieved his best result this season in tenth with 217.7 points. The two Germans Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger finished 11th and 13th. Behind Roman Koudelka, Maciej Kot was the best Pole in 15th.

Four Czech athletes score points

Besides Koudelka, also his teammates Jakub Janda, Lukas Hlava and Jan Matura could score points in 20th, 21st and 30th. Vincent Descombes Sevoie achieved a success for France in 17th, Evgeniy Klimov finished 18th and was the only Russian who could score World Cup points today. Lauri Asikainen was the only Finn in the final and came in 29th.

The second competition in Nizhny Tagil starts on Sunday at 3:00 pm CET, the qualification is scheduled for 1:45 pm CET.

Source: fis-ski.com