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Austrian Michael Hayböck best situated
© APA (AFP / Archive)
Michael Hayböck was fourth in the standings for the opening of the Ski Jumping World Cup in Wisla, the top-ranked Austrian on Friday. The 29-year-old, who had indicated his improvement in training before the World Cup winter, landed at 127 m (121.1 points). The best was Polish hometown hero Kamil Stoch at 132m (135.3). World Cup winner Stefan Kraft was only ÖSV’s fifth best jumper (118m / 108.3) as 22 before the team competition on Saturday (4:00 pm / ORF 1 live).
All six Austrians are in individual competition on Sunday (4pm / ORF 1 live). Good performances in the elimination were delivered by Daniel Huber in ninth (121.5m / 117.1) and Jan Hörl in eleventh (122m / 114.3) immediately ahead of Philipp Aschenwald (119m / 113.8). Gregor Schlierenzauer qualified 29th (115m / 103.3). Neo-coach Andreas Widhölzl nominated the Hayböck, Aschenwald, Huber and Kraft quartet for the team competition that the ÖSV jumpers had won last year.
“It was a very positive start, I think we are competitive,” said Widhölzl. “It’s good for athletes, they don’t have to do anything special, with what they can do, they can jump to the front.” Hayböck was very satisfied after qualifying. “It was a very good fit, the jumps were very stable. I took what I worked on in the summer.”
Kraft, who received the highest mark in the first training jump, did not achieve the most important round of the day as expected. “The first jump was very good. Then there was a bit of tension, it was for something for the first time. It was a risky jump and the race was short. But basically I am very satisfied,” said the 27-year-old. On Saturday he expects the Poles to be the strongest team. “You are hard to beat here. But we don’t need to hide and we will jump aggressively.”
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