Slovenia dominates team event in Zakopane
Jan 15, 2022·Ski Jumping
The Ski Jumping team of Slovenia won the Saturday's team competition in Zakopane (POL). Lovro Kos, Peter Prevc, Timi Zajc, and Anze Lanisek dominated this season's third team competition on the Wielka-Krokiew-hill in front of about 10,000 fans and came in clearly ahead of Germany and Japan.
Only a week after they came in fourth in the team event in Bischofshofen, the Slovenes were at their best in Zakopane. Their total of 1101.1 points earned them a lead of 66.4 points over Germany (Severin Freund, Stephan Leyhe, Markus Eisenbichler, Karl Geiger).
The final jump of the Slovenian team, Anze Lanisek, said after the competition: "I’m satisfied, because we as a team have managed to do our best today. It was amazing, I was really enjoying the second round. I’m very grateful and thankful for my teammates that they were able to put together two good jumps, especially Peter. The conditions were changing, so you had to have some luck with wind. We had to focus on ourselves and do the best jumps we can. The fans were amazing, it was something we all missed. Tomorrow I just want to try to enjoy and do my best."
It was the 11th win in a World Cup team event, but it's been a while since the last one in Vikersund 2019. The outstanding athlete on the team today was Peter Prevc, the oldest of the Prevc brothers scored the most points today (289.4 points) in a virtual individual ranking.
For the German team Karl Geiger stated: "It was a really good performance by our team today. My two jumps were a lot better than last weekend in Bischofshofen and I'm very happy about that. We can really be proud of our performance today. With regards to Beijing, there' still some work to do, but today we are satisfied with what we achieved." Geiger was the best on the German team today with 283.2 points, the Oberstdorf-native was third in an individual ranking.
The only team finishing on the podium in Bischofshofen and today was Japan. After the second place last weekend, the Japanese jumpers were third this afternoon. "In the first round it was windy, but in the second one the conditions were good and my jump was much better. Today's competition was on a high level. It was a real ski jumping competition, because we had supporters, in the other places the stadium was empty. Tomorrow I want to be on the podium again", Naoki Nakamura said after the competition.
Austria, the winner of the event in Bischofshofen, was fourth today, Norway came in fifth. Without Kamil Stoch (ankle injury) and Dawid Kubacki (positive Covid test), the home team of Poland was sixth. Russia and the Czech Republic scored points in seventh and eighth.
Austria (2896 points) remains in the lead of the Nations Cup, followed by Germany (2857 points) and Norway (2739 points).
The individual competition in Zakopane starts on Sunday at 4 pm CET.
