Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud won in Ruka
Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud won the second World Cup competition in Ruka on Sunday (FIN). Granerud was able to finish the race just ahead of Germany's Markus Eisenbichler with a great last jump. The third place in a very exciting competition on the Rukatunturi hill was taken by Dawid Kubacki from Poland.
Markus Eisenbichler was close to a third victory in a row, but then came the Norwegian Granerud and Eisenbichler did not have the best conditions in the second round, so the fan favorite from Bavaria this time took second place. "I didn't have the best conditions today in the final round, it was really changing, which made it difficult and was close to the limit all the time. But I'm happy with the second place and I'm still focused on good jumps and not thinking about the results.", Eisenbichler said, who leads the overall World Cup standings with a total 280 points.
For Halvor Egner Granerud it was the first World Cup victory in history, but the 24-year-old has already proved his extremely strong form in Wisła and during the first competition in Ruka. "I'm really, extremely happy, this is such a huge milestone. I had already achieved a few fourth and fifth places before and finally got on the podium and won, it's just amazing. I saw Sato's amazing second jump and I knew, that if I have the right conditions and make a good jump, then I could fly far away. The start was really good then and the conditions were too, so i was very good. The conditions changed a bit during the flight, so it was a bumpy ride", said the clearly overwhelmed winner.
Just like on Saturday, the third place was taken by Dawid Kubacki from Poland. “I am very happy with the third place, because the result after the first series was not so good, as expected. I was seventh, but I knew, that I could fight for a better result and that was enough, to be on the podium again. It's really cool, that I stood on the podium twice here, in Ruka. It wasn't an easy race today, because the wind was changing, but I think, that was all good. I still have some work to do, because my jumps are still not perfect – Kubacki said.
Japan's Yukiya Sato showed the longest jump of the day in the final round. In good conditions, Sato jumped 146 meters, and with this amazing jump he took fourth place in today's competition.
The two Norwegians Johann Andre Forfang and Robert Johansson finished fifth and sixth, so the team achieved a great result after yesterday's disappointment. Karl Geiger and Severin Freund finished eighth and ninth. For Severin Freund, this result in the top ten is definitely a huge success.
The bad news on this really good day of competition was this, that an athlete from the Czech Republic and a coach from Bulgaria tested positive for the corona virus in one of the regular tests. Entire teams from the Czech Republic and Bulgaria had to be quarantined before the competition and will not go to Russia with other teams.
On Monday at. 11 the teams will fly by charter from Rovaniemi to Yekaterinburg. The next two World Cup competitions will be held next weekend in Nizhny Tagil (RUS).