Overall World Cup winner Peter Prevc won the first individual competition at the World Cup final in Planica. The local hero took this win with jumps on 223 m and 232.5 m and 426.5 points ahead of Norway's Johann Andre Forfang and his teammate Robert Kranjec.
With this success in front of his home crowd the Slovenian highflyer set two new record: No ski jumper has ever won 14 competitions in one winter and no athlete scored more World Cup points in one season. The 23-year-old now has a total of 2123 points. "Actually I don't think about these records right now. It's important for me that I can jump on a high level and I'm very glad that I could make the 20 000 fans happy today", said the winner.
Johann Andre Forfang, who took his first ever win in the World Cup last weekend in Titisee-Neustadt, jumped on 226 m in both round and finished second with 419.0 points. "This was a great competition, it was a lot of fun flying here today. My jumps were not perfect, but I'm very satisfied with the second place. The atmosphere is special in Planica, it's crazy and awesome at the same time to jump in front of this fantastic crowd", said Forfang.
After 223 m in the first round, ski flying expert Robert Kranjec showed the longest jump of the day on 241.5 m in the final and to the joy of the many fans he was the second Slovene on the podium in third with 414.0 points.
Severin Freund of Germany was in the lead ahead of Forfang and Prevc after the first round with 227.5 m, but his 216 m in the final were then only enough for the fourth place with 409.9 points.
Kenneth Gangnes was fifth and the second Norwegian among the best. World record holder Anders Fannemel (9th), Andreas Stjernen (11th) and Daniel Andre Tande (12th) provided yet another strong team result for the athletes of Norway.
Kasai 6th in 500th competition
In his 500th World Cup appearance Noriaki Kasai once again proved that he is still one of the best also on the world's largest hills. The 43-year-old Japanese came in sixth.
Best Austrian was Michael Hayboeck in seventh, he finished three places ahead of his teammate Stefan Kraft. The eighth place went to the third-best Slovene today, Jurij Tepes.
Richard Freitag of Germany ws 13th, followed by Japanese Daiki Ito. The two Olympic Champions Kamil Stoch and Simon Ammann finished 15th and 16th.
Canada's Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes could also achieve a Top 20 result with his 18th place behind Czech Roman Koudelka.
Prevc on his way to the next trophy
After winning the overall World Cup this season, Peter Prevc is now also well on his way to win the Ski Flying World Cup for the third time in a row. In this ranking he leads with 350 points ahead of Johann Andre Forfang (228 points) and Robert Kranjec (220 points).
The final in Planica continues with the second individual competition on Friday at 3:15 pm CET (Qualification: 2:15 pm CET).
Source: fis-ski.com
