Peter Prevc won the third individual competition in Vikersund and emphasized his dominance impressively. With jumps on 237 m and 249 m and 469.0 points even a fall in the final round could not stop the Slovene. At the landing of his jump only 2.5 m short of the world record Prevc sat in the snow. But still the Ski Flying World Champion took the win ahead of Stefan Kraft and Andreas Stjernen.
Prevc said afterwards: "My jumps today were on a really high level again. Maybe I was a bit lucky with the conditions in the second round so I could jump that far and I was happy that I could land it the way I did. Landing at 249 m was a bit challenging because of the tail wind and there was a lot of pressure on my body. Because of the adrenalin I don't feel any pain now, but we'll see what happens when I calm down. It was a great weekend for the Slovenian team, but not only this weekend. We won all five competitions here in Norway and I hope that the Norwegians won't hate us now because of that."
Kraft sets Austrian record
Stefan Kraft jumped on 238 m and 231 m and scored 461.6 points. The Austrian said: "This was an incredible competition, that's why you become a ski jumper and that's what you are training for all year long. It was simply perfect today with the Austrian record. The whole "Norway-Tour" went great for our team. I like Lahti a lot and I'm looking forward to it, the hill in Kuopio also suits me well. I hope that I can finish in the Top 5, or maybe even Top 3, in the competitions in Finland."
Stjernen with lots of adrenalin
Andreas Stjernen celebrated the third podium finish of his career with 249 m and 231 m and 459.7 points. "It was an amazing day for me. I was a bit shocked when I was jumping that far in the qualification, I didn't think that I would still be able to jump even farther. There's still a lot of adrenalin in my body and will take a while to get it out. In the first round I had perfect conditions and with that low speed and so I wasn't high above the ground and it was quite easy to land. Standing on top in the second round and hearing that all my teammates jumped so far was both, scary and nice."
Freund good - Norwegians amazing
Severin Freund came in fourth with 236.5 m and 226.5 m and 454.5 m and got one step closer to the podium again. The fifth place went to Daniel Andre Tande, who was only 0.3 points behind Freund with his jumps on 229.5 m and 242 m. Kenneth Gangnes (447.7 points), Johann Andre Forfang (443.2 points) and Anders Fannemel (434.1 points) in sixth to eighth crowned the outstanding home event for Norway, although Slovenia took all three wins this weekend.
Michael Hayboeck was ninth with 429.2 points, Noriaki Kasai was the best Japanese in tenth with 415.0 points, close ahead of his teammate Taku Takeuchi in eleventh.
Zyla is back
Piotr Zyla achieved his by far best result this season in 12th, followed by Olympic Champion Simon Ammann. Although he obviously felt pain after his crash on Friday, Jurij Tepes showed that he is a fighter and finished on a strong 14th place. Markus Eisenbichler scored points for the second time in his fourth World Cup appearance this season in 15th. Behind the Norwegian-German group Joachim Hauer, Richard Freitag, Robert Johansson and Andreas Wank on the places 16 to 19, Manuel Poppinger was the third-best Austrian in 20th.
Points for Boyd-Clowes
Canada's Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes celebrated his second best result this season in 22nd, French Vincent Descombes Sevoie scored points again in 25th. Cestmir Kozisek was the only Czech to score points today 29th, Kevin Bickner represented the USA in the final round and finished 30th.
Prevc en route to both crystal globes
Peter Prevc seems unstoppable on his way to the overall World Cup title. Five weeks before the final in Planica the Slovene scored 1574 points and has a lead of 572 points over defending champion Severin Freund. Kenneth Gangnes follows in third with 940 points. After three of five competition Prevc is also in the lead in the Ski Flying World Cup with 250 points, ahead of Kenneth Gangnes (170 points) and Stefan Kraft (165 points). His teammate Robert Kranjec, first and third on Friday and Saturday, failed to qualify for the final on Sunday and is now fourth with 160 points.
Norway bound to win the Nation's Cup
In the Nation's Cup Norway leads with 4629 points and can slowly start to get ready for celebrating the title at the end of the season. With the three wins in Vikersund Slovenia moved up to second with 3849 points, Germany is now third with 3594 points.
The World Cup continues next weekend in Lahti, Finland.
Source: fis-ski.com
