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Domen Prevc flies to gold on the large hill in Predazzo
At the Olympic large hill competition in Predazzo, an intense battle for gold developed. Domen Prevc won with a strong final jump ahead of Japan’s Ren Nikaido and Polend’s Kacper Tomasiak. Behind them, the field stayed very close, while changing conditions and several surprises shaped the competition.
The event on the large hill began in difficult weather. Continuous rain and wet snow made the inrun tricky and required several gate changes. Early in the first round, the young Kazakh jumper Ilya Mizernykh set a mark with 140.5 meters and clearly took the lead before the jury shortened the inrun. Athletes such as Tate Frantz (USA) and Vilho Palosaari (Finland) also used the favourable conditions early on and created excitement with jumps beyond 130 meters.
In the fight for the medals, three jumpers stood out even before the break: Ren Nikaido, Domen Prevc and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal. Nikaido showed a powerful jump to 140.0 meters and took the lead with 154.0 points. Prevc followed with 138.5 meters and went into the final in second place, while Sundal stayed close in third with 136.0 meters. Kacper Tomasiak also performed well, achieving 133.0 metres, and came fourth after the first round. Jan Hoerl of Austria also delivered a solid first jump. With 147.7 points, he finished just 0.1 points behind the Polish athlete in fifth place, remaining in contention for a medal.
Overall, the competition was very tight, with many changes in position. Some favourites, such as Anze Lanisek and Stefan Kraft, dropped back early or missed the final, while others used the changing conditions for strong individual jumps. In the end, consistency and an outstanding final jump decided the medals.
The second round became increasingly exciting, with frequent changes to the ranking. Long jumps by Ryoyu Kobayashi, Ilya Mizernykh and Stefan Embacher kept the results open for a long time. Tomasiak opened the fight for the podium with a strong jump of 138.5 meters and took the lead for the moment. Shortly afterwards, Hoerl demonstrated that he had rediscovered his form on this hill. However, his jump of 136 metres was not enough to beat Tomasiak. Sundal also came close with a jump of 135.5 metres, but not close enough. Both finished behind the young Polish athlete, who could celebrate his second Olympic medal early. Sundal finished fourth and Hoerl fifth.
The decision for gold came in the final two jumps. Prevc attacked in the final and set the longest jump of the day with 141.5 meters. With a total of 301.8 points, he moved clearly into first place. Nikaido had to respond in the last jump to keep his lead, but he lost balance slightly after the take-off and landed at 136.5 meters. With 295.0 points, he won the silver medal, while Tomasiak took bronze with 291.2 points.
For the German team, the hoped-for medal did not happen. Philipp Raimund improved only slightly in the second round. With 136.0 meters, he did better than in his first jump but stayed just behind Kobayashi, who started a late comeback with 138.5 meters. In the final results, Raimund finished ninth with 277.4 points, one place ahead of Vladimir Zografski. Andreas Wellinger ended the competition in 15th place after jumps of 127.0 and 127.5 meters. Pius Paschke moved up to 24th place in the final with 127.0 meters, while Felix Hoffmann finished 25th after jumps of 126.0 and 126.5 meters.