Even the unfavourable conditions did not deprive him of the championship! Stefan Kraft won the World Ski Flying Championships

The 28th FIS Nordic World Ski Championships are held on the mammoth hill in Austria. Its main highlight in the form of the individual race is already in the past. Stefan Kraft dominated the two-day competition, albeit shortened in the end, in front of the home crowd.

Had it not been for the poor condition of the “mammoth” in Harrachov, the attractive top event might have been held here these days. Due to the regular change of the hosts of the World Championships of Flyers, the turn this year would have come to the hill popularly called “Čert’ák”, where the championship was last held in 2014.

The poor condition of ski jumping in the Czech Republic, in the past the pride of domestic sport, is evidenced by another fact. For the first time, no Czech ski jumper competed at the World Ski Jumping Championships. The experienced Roman Koudelka, who is today the only one of the national team, composed mainly of young athletes, able to score points in the World Cup, decided not to participate.

The air championships returned to Kulm, near Tauplitz and Bad Mitterndorf, after eight years. Nowadays it is still possible to practice this specific ski jumping discipline on the mammoth hills in Vikersund, Norway, Planica, Slovenia and Oberstdorf, Germany.

The 2024 World Championships were due to start on Thursday with qualification. However, the organisers cancelled it due to the weather, so all 47 participants automatically went into Friday’s first round. The top 30 advanced from the initial phase, with Timi Zajc taking the lead.

The Slovenian held on to the top spot and was therefore the closest to winning the gold medal before Saturday. After two rounds he had 435.8 points. The overall silver position belonged to Austrian Stefan Kraft ahead of Norwegian Johann André Forfang.

Kraft wins in poor conditions

The organisers were plagued by strong winds during Saturday’s programme. The third round was originally scheduled to start at 14:00, but those present were two hours late for the race to continue. Around 4 p.m., however, the sun began to set and since the Kulm venue does not have artificial lighting, it was clear that the traditional final round number four would not be held.

The third series of attempts was therefore the decisive part of the championship race. Some of the jumpers were not happy about the bad conditions with a strong tailwind, but Gregor Deschwanden, for example, was lucky. Thanks to good wind support, the Swiss reached 235.5 metres and moved up nine places to 17th in the final ranking.

Timi Zajc paid the price for his unsuccessful performance, which was influenced by poor conditions. He jumped to a distance of only 209.5 metres, received a large wind compensation but a worse score from the judges. After his flight, he was probably the most disappointed man in Kulm as he missed out on gold. As the defending silver medalist, he at least hung a bronze medal around his neck.

Stefan Kraft, who landed at the 228 m mark, flew to the overall victory a short time before him. He scored 647.4 points in the three competitions and added another success to his trophy collection. In the past, among other things, he has dominated the SP season twice, reigned supreme at the World Ski Jumping Championships three times and took team gold at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

For the sake of completeness, the name of the silver medal winner from this year’s World Ski Jumping Championships should be added. It is Germany’s Andreas Wellinger, who was 2.2 points behind the champion. Kraft, who as the current leader of the World Cup fulfilled the role of one of the main favourites, became the fifth Austrian individual World Ski Flying Champion. Incidentally, Karel Kodejška of the then Czechoslovakia won in 1975, and Jaroslav Sakala of the Czech Republic in 1994.

On Sunday, the national team race will take place in Kulm to conclude the championship programme. This has been held nine times so far at the Air World Championships. A total of five triumphs have been scored by Norway, three by Austria and the last title so far will be defended by Slovenia.

Top 10 final standings for the individual race at the 2024 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

1. Stefan Kraft (647.4 pts.)
2. Andreas Wellinger (-2.2)
3. Timi Zajc (-4.7)
4. Johann André Forfang (-18.1)
5. Lovro Kos (-18.8)
6. Piotr Zyla (-21)
7. Niko Kytösaho (-33.5)
8. Michael Hayböck (-37.3)
9. Ryoyu Kobayashi (-43.9)
10. Stephan Leyhe (-58.6)

Source: FIS