Piotr Żyła and Dawid Kubacki on the podium in Ruka
After winning the season opener last weekend in Wisla (POL), Markus Eisenbichler from Germany also won this year's Winter World Cup in Ruka (FIN). 29-the year-old won the World Cup for the third time in his career, ahead of two Poles, Piotr Żyła and Dawid Kubacki.
"It appears, it's easy for me now, but it's really hard work.", explains Eisenbichler. “I have to fight every day and stay focused. The conditions today were pretty good, yesterday there was a strong wind at the back, but today there was a headwind and it was really cool. He's doing great with the coaching staff, but I know, that in order to continue working i need to improve my landing, I know, that I can do better", today's winner said, who now leads the overall World Cup standings with the maximum number 200 points.
With today's success, Eisenbichler followed in the footsteps of Severin Freund, who won in Ruka 2012 i 2016 and was the only German winner to date.
– Markus was very strong today – said second place Piotr Żyła from Poland. “I didn't expect it after the first series, I will be on the podium today. I don't have a specific plan for Sunday, for me the most important is, to have fun and make the best jumps. I hope, that the result will be so good, how today, maybe a little better, but I don't think about it"- Zyla said.
For a teammate from Żyła Dawid Kubacki, who won the qualification on Friday, third place was definitely the best result on the Rukatunturi hill. “I'm satisfied with the result and I'm happy, that I can stand on the podium together with my teammate. That's great. A bit of a pity, that I lost one place after the first series, but it's sports. Today I gave my all and the jumps were good, maybe not perfect, but I am satisfied and will return to the hotel with a big smile on my face – Kubacki said.
The strong Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud took fourth place behind the top three, who missed the podium due to a weaker first jump. Robert Johansson was sixth and achieved a very good result for Norway, although the two charges of coach Alex Stoeckl had no reason to celebrate:
Daniel Andre Tande collapsed after landing in the first round and was unable to recover from the take-off, but during the second round, he came back to the contestants' area and said, that everything should be fine, apart from a few bruises. With any luck, Tande will be able to compete again on Sunday. Forfang was disqualified by the jury, because it started too early. Due to a mistake by the coach who released the player at a red light – for which he later apologized.
Yukiya Sato was the best of the Japanese team in fifth place, Germans Pius Paschke and Karl Geiger placed eighth and ninth.
Artti Aigro from Estonia was the surprise of the day. Your way 26. place in Wisła, 21-the year-old training with the Finland team took today 14. place, which is an excellent result for Aigro.