Holmenkollen: Kvandal ahead of Prevc and Pinkelnig
Mar 11, 2024·Ski Jumping
Norway's Eirin Maria Kvandal was the outstanding athlete at the first weekend of the RAW AIR in Oslo. On Sunday, the 22-year-old came out on top ahead of World Cup leader Nika Prevc from Slovenia and Eva Pinkelnig from Austria. Kvandal now clearly leads the overall RAW AIR rankings.
On Friday, Kvandal had already won the first qualification in Oslo, followed by third place in the one-run competition on Saturday and today first the victory in the qualification and then the success in the competition. "That was great today, I'm really overwhelmed. I'm kind of lost for words. I'm really looking forward to the competitions in Trondheim now, they are my home hills, I hope I can do some good jumps there," explained Kvandal, who had already won a World Cup in Ljubno (SLO) in January 2021, but then had to take a long break after a knee injury.
Kvandal is regarded as a super talent, which she clearly demonstrated this weekend.
Second place went to Nika Prevc from Slovenia, just behind Kvandal.
Prevc had already delivered a strong performance yesterday after she was the last athlete at the start and had to wait almost 30 minutes for her jump due to the gusty wind conditions, finishing sixth in the end.
Today, Prevc deserved second place and took another step towards winning the overall World Cup, as Eva Pinkelnig, her closest rival, finished directly behind Prevc.
Prevc leads the overall World Cup with 1225 points ahead of Pinkelnig (1036 points).
The unlucky skier of the day was Katharina Schmid from Germany. Schmid led after the first run, but then lost five places in the final. "I attacked hard in the final and that was obviously a bit too much in these conditions, but I'm still happy with this weekend," explained Schmid, who is in a promising second place in the overall RAW AIR standings. However, the gap to the leader Kvandal is already over 29 points.
For the women, as for the men, the travel day to Trondheim is on the program on Monday. In Trondheim there will be one competition on the normal hill and one on the large hill.
Result Oslo Sunday
RAW AIR Overall
