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Because the whole team was recently infected with the corona virus, a good preparation failed. SV-Schanzenstars go hunting long distances without any competition practice.
It wasn’t until Wednesday morning that Kraft received a green light from the medical department. In Schlierenzauer, Aschenwald and Haybck, the inscription came earlier. All have won the race against time so far, but it is far from clear what feats the renowned drivers are now capable of. Head coach Andreas Widhlzl wants to nominate his four World Cup starters only after the two training sessions on Thursday.
Despite the loss of substance, Kraft decided to start during the forced hiatus. “I don’t want to stay home any longer and watch the World Cup on TV knowing that I could really be there. I am too passionate about my sport and ski flying in particular,” said the current ski flight world record holder. (253.5 m). With only seven winter jumps and lots of question marks, he’s headed for the flying hill.
Widhlzl breathed a sigh of relief at his returnees. The Tyrolean headed to Slovenia “with a positive feeling” but refrained from aiming for the medals. “Our approach is more like ‘anything is possible’, but the favorites are definitely different,” Widhlzl told the APA – Austrian Press Agency. “Our preparation was suboptimal. The medals are in the background, the focus should be on their own strengths.”
The bad omens for the first peak of the season are also homemade in the case of the Austrians. Eight SV athletes plus head coach Widhlzl had been infected with the corona virus since late November. More recently in Nizhny Tagil, Daniel Huber, who has climbed the previous two podium spots for SV this World Cup season, did too. Already during the weekend, the exit of the World Cup was safe for the strongest formally and for all those who tested positive in Russia.
Even if everything is going well in sporting terms at the World Cup: the Austrian team is now being criticized by the competition. Most of the other major nations still don’t have a single crown case. This also includes the Germans, whose leader Markus Eisenbichler said in relation to the dominant theme: “If you do not comply with the crown measures as we do … then it is also a bit self-inflicted on others because they are too small. be careful, or not adhere to hygiene concepts, or have other hygiene concepts ”.
Widhlzl did not want such comments to be related to the SV team. “I won’t let it occur to us that we were careless or that we didn’t stick to the concepts. I can only say that we were very interested in always sticking to these concepts,” said the former world-class jumper. “It may just be during the incubation period that people sneak away. You have a team of 15 people, I can’t prohibit them from having contact with families.”
Seventh world championship in Planica
For the seventh time, the Slovenian city near the Austrian border is hosting the world championships. Austria has so far flown four medals on the Letalnica hill, two each in the individual and team competition that has only been held since 2004. After gold for Armin Kogler in 1979, Gregor Schlierenzauer won silver there in 2010 behind by the Swiss Simon Ammann.
Ten years later, Ammann skipped title fights for lack of form, and Schlierenzauer isn’t one of the closest favorites, either. The world champion in flight skiing (14 wins) recovered from his illness, but got to the heart of the problem: “He is now more or less straight from the bed to one of the biggest ski jumps in the world.” Based on his experience, the veteran hoped “that he can still start pretty well.”
Of the best people in Austria, Philipp Aschenwald has the most jumps on his legs. “In my opinion, I have enough jumping in the snow, you can’t practice ski flying anyway. Everybody starts from scratch, so it gets closer.” He saw his low expectations as an advantage. “Maybe that will bring the ease we need and the results will be really casual flights.”
With the Norwegians, who are served by Tyrolean Alexander Stckl, the bar is much higher. In Halvor Egner Granerud (24) is a three-time winner of the season. There are also men with proven flying qualities: Robert Johansson is the national record holder (252m), he was on the podium twice this year. With Daniel-Andre Tande, the 2018 Oberstdorf world champion is also there.
In the German team, hopes mainly rest on Eisenbichler. If the two-time season winner hadn’t had a strong wind recently, he probably would have traveled to the championships as a World Cup leader. The Bavarian just wants to show jumps like last time. “Then the others will have a hard time.” The record holder for the hill is Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, who landed after 252 meters in 2019.
Will such expansions be possible again in Letalnica? The December schedule after last March’s cancellation is unusual for Planica and is likely to have an impact on thermals. A tailwind is likely. Therefore, the Norwegian coach is skeptical: “The temperatures are lower and the air is much denser than in the spring. Also, people have not yet completed many big jumps,” said Stckl.
