OPA: Kolb and Heinis win in Ramsau am Dachstein

The next OPA Alpencup competitions were on schedule at the World Cup venue of Ramsau am Dachstein this weekend. The two most successful athletes of the weekend were Florian Kolb (AUT) and Marco Heinis (FRA).

On Saturday, Kolb hit a jump of 93 metres which put him into the pole position for the race and equipped him with a 21-second-lead on runner-up Jiri Konvalinka from the Czech Republic (91.5 m). Germany’s Pirmin Maier was third with 90.5 metres and started 33 seconds after Kolb.

Even though stronger jumper Kolb only skied the 25th fastest time in the 5 km race, his time of 13:05.3 were enough to carry a visibly overjoyed Florian Kolb to his maiden OPA victory, +20.6 seconds ahead of France’s Marco Heinis. Kolb’s teammate Fabian Hafner finished one second after the Frenchman to take the bronze position.

Final Results
Ski Jumping Results

The following day had the group of young athletes attack the 10 km distance. Again, Florian Kolb was the best on the jumping hill with 92 metres but Jiri Konvalinka was hot on his heels with 92.5 metres and a delay of only 16 seconds. Also Saturday’s second placed Marco Heinis hit a good jump of 89.5 metres and was only 30 seconds behind Kolb at the start of the race.

World Cup experienced Heinis closed the gap and the two athletes battled for the victory until the very end. A finish line sprint had to decide the race and now it was Heinis’s turn to set his career-first OPA victory by 0.2 seconds. Italy’s Iacopo Bortolas stormed to the third place by finishing +29.3 seconds after the winner.

Final Results
Ski Jumping Results

With the weekend, the OPA Alpencup season concludes. In the overall standings, Florian Kolb also made the step to the very top of the podium and took the win with 370 points, ahead of his teammate Fabian Hafner (354) and Marco Heinis (320).

Overall Standings