Halvor Egner Granerud and Ursa Bogataj win in Chaikovsky
Sep 11, 2021·Ski Jumping
Ursa Bogataj and Halvor Egner Granerud defend their overall leads in the FIS Grand Prix on Saturday in Chaikovsky (RUS). The Slovene and the Norwegian, who were both considered the top favorites in today's competitions, claimed the wins on Saturday.
In the women's competition, which was interrupted many times due to the difficult wind conditions, Bogataj took the win ahead of Norway's Silje Opseth and Ema Klinec (SLO). After the victories in Wisla (2x) and Courchevel, this was already Bogataj's fourth win this summer. With another success in the second women's individual competition in Chaikovsky on Sunday, Ursa Bogataj could already claim the overall Grand Prix title. This would be the biggest success so far for the 26-year-old.
Opseth, who won the qualification yesterday, presented herself in strong shape again, even if it was not enough to win today. After the two rounds, she came in 8.8 points behind Ursa Bogataj.
With Jerneja Brecl in fourth, the Slovenes achieved an outstanding team result. The fourth place was an especially remarkable result for Brecl, after the 19-year-old crashed in yesterday's training.
Besides the Slovenes, also the Russians did very well today. With the places five (Avvakumova), seven (Kustova), 8 (Tikhonova), and 10 (Prokopieva), four Russian jumpers were in the Top 10. With Bing Dong and Qingyue Peng, two Chinese jumpers qualified for the final round, a strong performance for the team of Mika Kojonkoski.
Granerud continues to dominate
Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway claimed his third win in a row today in Chaikovsky. He finished ahead of Russia's Evgeniy Klimov and his teammate Johann Andre Forfang.
But it was not easy for Granerud today: "It was a really tough fight today with Evgeniy Klimov, his first jump was extremely strong, it was really impressive", said Granerud, who was 8 points behind Klimov after the first round. "My second jump today was great, everything worked well and in the end, it was a close race between Klimov and me."
Klimov already showed convincing performances in yesterday's training and the prologue. The Russian, for whom this was the first competition this summer and who won a World Cup in Wisla 2018, is in great shape right now.
Just like the Slovenes in the women's event, the jumpers of Norway dominated the men's competition. Besides Granerud and Forfang, Marius Lindvik completed the fantastic team result for the athletes of head coach Alex Stoeckl in fourth, Robin Pedersen finished on the strong seventh place.
It was also a successful day for the Russians, with Mikhail Nazarov, Ilya Mankov, and Roman Sergeevich Trofimov in sixth, eighth, and ninth.
Halvor Egner Granerud now leads the overall ranking of the Grand Prix with 300 points. The next competitions of the men's Grand Prix will be held in Hinzenbach (AUT) and Klingenthal (GER). Tomorrow a mixed team competition will take place in Chaikovsky.
