Winter Sports - Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country, Biathlon and more

[CPV4931]

I am not sure is anybody into skijumping, but I have watched all competitions for some time already. And I am happy for only Estonian - Kaarel Nurmsalu =)
He got his and Estonia best ever result yesterday - 13th place. I believe that Nurmsalu will improve his skills even more and maybe get a medal one day.

Competition in Planica, Slovenia has been really cool. I like, when skijumpers jump very far. But I also feel sorry for the Norwegian man who fell

I´m very interested in Skijumping (watching almost every competition, too) and it´s nice to see some jumpers from smaller nations (Nuurmsalu - Estonia, Zografski - Bulgaria) in top 20.
Good luck to Nuurmsalu for the future :-)

 

[Nikoreindeer1973]

 

[JamieBrown]

[MENTION=11532]EscGeek[/MENTION] [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION]

Didn't notice there's this thread

What do you say to today's competition? I'm pretty impressed by the Top 5 and that Freund and Prevc manage to do better than the rest everytime, even if the rest is jumping around 140m already And then these landings

 

[ShoeFlo]

after Freund came down on 141 meters I was actually worried for Preuc cause I thought he could have jumped in a dangerous area. But considering his form he could probably jump into the crowd and still make a perfect telemark.
It's insane how good and consistent are Preuc and Freund. Also in the future this could be a thrilling duel between these two jumpers. Of course one shouldn't forget that bunch of Norwegian talents which are behind the top as well as Hayböck, Kraft and even the immortal Kasai. Peter Prevc's brother is also a jumper one has to keep in view. I don't understand what's wrong with the Polish team at the moment but I guess they will return stronger soon.

German perspective: FINALLY a good 4-hills-torunament result. Freund's 2nd place is the best result after Hannawald's grand slam in 2002. The whole team did a great job, the result today was not that good to be honest. But we had 5 jumper in Top 15 in Oberstdorf and 4 jumpers in Top 10 in Innsbruck.
I think Freitag and Wellinger do have enough talent to become world-class jumpers who can regularly fight for the Top 3 (Actually both were considered to be more talented than Freund) Wellinger is still very young and he was injured a long time. I understand that he can't be in full possession of his quality yet. Freitag is too inconsistent but then again I don't know any other jumper who has so much unluck when it comes to the wind. Literally always when he is ready to jump the wind get stronger

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Ski Flying World championsships in two weeks

 

[EscGeek]

I'm happy for Prevc...this year he finally started winning.This is his 12th victory and 6 of them are less than a month old. (would be 7 if Oberstdorf didn't happen)
I'm proud to say that I already knew in 2010,that Prevc has the huge potential (when he was 8th in Vancouver)
Congrats to Domen as well
Now i'm waiting for Cene Prevc to join

Finally it's over for Austria because their win-streak was slightly irritating tbh (although watching Schlierenzauer was painful)

And Tepeš is back just as [MENTION=12837]JamieBrown[/MENTION] predicted so I can hope for a top 3 result in team competition. Again,four teams will fight for top 3 places (maybe five if Japan surprises us all)

 

[ShoeFlo]

I expect a two-horse-race between and in a team competition. Then there is the fight for the 3rd place. Actually in a usual world cup competition Japan probably wouldn't fight for the 3rd place since they save their power for the big events (remember Sotchi 2014 and its not a coincident that Daiko Ito improved during the 4-hills-tournament started). So there remains and in fight for the 3rd place and both teams are on a par with each other
A possible result in the team event in Willingen would be this:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. probably
9. (if dig out two more jumpers they could surpass )
10.

 

[JamieBrown]

Yes, is out, since their best jumpers are not going to start in Willingen, if I heard right. The german Eurosport commentators predicted could do well, since they had decent mid-table results during the tournament. The problem is that Koudelka seems not in the top-condition, he is well, but not exciting.

Slovenia's result depends on how Tepes, Kranjec(?) and Domen Prevc will do. Tepes and Prevc are pure madness. Among the most amazing jumpers, but everytime I think we may see something between 90 or 140 m Kranjec needs to reach his best daily form, then Slovenia can win.

If not Germany is the strongest contender, since I'm not sure how well Tande and Forfang have the condition to continue after this exhausting tournament. Wellinger and Wank should beat the 3rd and 4th norwegian jumper, no matter it will be Hauer, Stjernen or Fannemel. And Gangnes is not strong enough for Freitag and Freund

Austria's power is over. Only Hayboeck and Kraft remaining, Fettner on an average level and then Poppinger or Schlierenzauer, both not even strong enough to reach the final round more often.

After the 5th place we may see a snail race, since Japan will send their 2nd squad. I'm not sure if France and Switzerland are going to compete, in France case I even doubt it. And the swiss jumpers, especially Deschwanden, who's supposed to be their 2nd best, also had some horrible results. Speaking about horrible results we have to speak about the entire teams of Russia and Finland, and even Poland's performance was very dissatisfying. Of course in the end Poland will go through, the rest is still unpredictable. Usually we'll see ~10 teams, Finland and Russia will take part, about the last team I don't know. Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea Republic, United States, Switzerland, France. The list of on-off-participating teams is long

 

[JamieBrown]

Okay for the team competiton: Japan won't compete. There's not a single athlete in Willingen. They're all in Japan now.

Only 56 competing in the qualification right now http://live.berkutschi.com/skijumping/3771

So now Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria, Poland and two out of Russia/Switzerland/Finland should reach the Top 8.

Edit: Tepes won the qualification with 139 m, Kranjec got 4th. While Domen had a good and a mediocre jump and the dominator quit the hill today, Freitag got an amazing jump of 147,5 m. 2nd best jumper Freund got 140 m. The PQed norwegians following behind. Hopefully all get their best together tomorrow, so that it will an amazing fight between the three countries. Austria seems to be out, as I told before. Even the czechs were better.

 

[EscGeek]

new ski jumping season finally started!

it's my favorite winter sport and my favorite individual sport

 

[ShoeFlo]

new ski jumping season finally started!

it's my favorite winter sport and my favorite individual sport

Same here

Of course I will support our amazing German team ... and Noriaki Kasai

I am actually surprised that the Kuusamo event can be held tonight because it gets cancelled due to heavy wind almost every year

 

[EscGeek]

I also support Kasai

 

[SaladBreak]

I also adore this sport although we don't even have a single representative. Not sure if we ever did have one. I usually support Slovenians when it comes to ski sports, with the exception of Jakov Fak (A-O) T()

 

[EscGeek]

I also adore this sport although we don't even have a single representative. Not sure if we ever did have one. I usually support Slovenians when it comes to ski sports, with the exception of Jakov Fak (A-O) T()

are you able to watch it on SLO 2?

 

[SaladBreak]

are you able to watch it on SLO 2?

Yes, it is included in my maxTV package. I could also watch SLO1 and SLO2 on regular TV before I broke something

 

[JamieBrown]

Germans are quite disappointed with the commentators, since the instances of german reporters (Dirk Thiele and ex-professional Gerd Siegmund) got "fired" and the new duo, including 4-Hills-Tournament Record Man Sven Hannawald, is a sleeping pill. They rather speak nothing than talking bullshit, or they're pointing out the obvious.

Nonetheless, there was competition and I'm gladly surprised that Severin Freund managed to jump on the podium after his injuries. And I hope that Karl Geiger will finally do great the whole season. It starts with a PQ tomorrow, that's a start

I prefer biathlon slightly though.

 

[LastDreamer]

Team Vonn

 

[JamieBrown]

Gosh. Severin Freund is amazing. But I guess he will have some more weak days during the season, most probably during the 4-hills-tournament. Peter Prevc should win the World Cup again. He showed his quality at Friday.

 

[EscGeek]

The nations cup...the only thing hasn't won yet

And it looks like we won't win it this year either...Without Prevc bros we would have one point more than

 

[ShoeFlo]

he will have some more weak days during the season, most probably during the 4-hills-tournament.

Same procedure as every year (Fair enough, he did well in the last 4-hills-tournament)

I just hope that one day I will see a German athlete winning this tournament. 4HT has always been my personal highlight of the wintersport season and I started following ski-jumpging events in 2002/2003 and that was right one year after Hannawalds "grand slam" ... unlucky me

However, I think his major goal is winning gold in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti and this would be fine anyway. However he already won the WC in Falun in 2015 so he should rather care about the events he didnt win yet. Or why not both events?

In general, Peter Prevc looks mostly unbeatable. Days like yesterday are very rare, usually "consistency" is his second name and he proved often enough that he is class of his own. If Prevc is in good form Freund doesn't stand a chance against him just like every other athlete.

Don't know yet what to think about Domen Prevc. He might be even more talented but he is not nearly as stable as his older brother

 

[JamieBrown]

Same procedure as every year (Fair enough, he did well in the last 4-hills-tournament)

I just hope that one day I will see a German athlete winning this tournament. 4HT has always been my personal highlight of the wintersport season and I started following ski-jumpging events in 2002/2003 and that was right one year after Hannawalds "grand slam" ... unlucky me

However, I think his major goal is winning gold in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti and this would be fine anyway. However he already won the WC in Falun in 2015 so he should rather care about the events he didnt win yet. Or why not both events?

In general, Peter Prevc looks mostly unbeatable. Days like yesterday are very rare, usually "consistency" is his second name and he proved often enough that he is class of his own. If Prevc is in good form Freund doesn't stand a chance against him just like every other athlete.

Don't know yet what to think about Domen Prevc. He might be even more talented but he is not nearly as stable as his older brother

The "Grand Slam" and the 2002 Gold medal (0,1 points ahead of Finland) belonging to my first memories

I agree with you about the priorities, but I think it was just a humble estimation how long it might take to get fit enough. Hopefully it did not take that long and the results from Ruka stating his well form and not his love to this specific hill

Domen is like the better version of Jurij Tepes. But both are "mad man", rather in a positive way. Last year the slovenian association didn't let him jump on the flying hills. Actually he's not allowed to until he turns 18, iirc. I think that's well-thought regarding his health. Just means that he's not ready for the Top 3 so far.

[MENTION=11532]EscGeek[/MENTION] I would wait a few weeks, but I also don't know more promising jumpers for this season, even though I think Tepes will have his moments like every year. Sadly Jaka Hvala only had his first season. Isn't there a third Prevc brother though?