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Lanisek claims third World Cup victory of the season
Slovenian jumper Anze Lanisek celebrated his third win of the season in Zakopane, finishing ahead of Austria’s Jan Hoerl and Manuel Fettner. In the first men’s Super Team event of the winter, Austria claimed a clear victory ahead of Slovenia and Poland.
After the Four Hills Tournament, the next World Cup event followed just a few days later. Only a short time after the competition in Bischofshofen, the ski jumping circuit moved on to Zakopane, Poland. Several top athletes decided to skip the weekend in order to recover, including Austria’s Daniel Tschofenig and Stefan Kraft, Germany’s Felix Hoffmann and Philipp Raimund, as well as Japan’s Ren Nikaido and Ryoyu Kobayashi.
The weekend began with the qualification round, where Manuel Fettner topped the standings. With a jump of 138 meters, the Austrian won the qualifier ahead of Jan Hoerl and Anze Lanisek. This performance already showed that the Austrian team was in strong shape in Zakopane, even without some of their top athletes.
On Saturday evening, the first Super Team competition of the season took place and was clearly dominated by Austria. Jan Hoerl and Stephan Embacher collected a total of 805.9 points across the three rounds and secured a convincing victory, finishing 47.6 points ahead of Slovenia. Hoerl and Embacher took the lead early on and continued to extend their advantage throughout the competition. Hoerl especially impressed with two jumps of 141 meters. Slovenia, represented by Timi Zajc and Anze Lanisek, finished second with 758.3 points, while Poland claimed third place in front of their home crowd thanks to strong performances by Dawid Kubacki and Kacper Tomasiak, scoring 741.8 points.
Norway missed out on a podium finish after Halvor Egner Granerud struggled with his final jump, allowing Poland to celebrate their third place. Switzerland finished fifth, just ahead of Germany. The teams from the USA, Japan, France, Turkey and Kazakhstan failed to qualify for the final round and finished between ninth and 13th place. Italy was disqualified at the start of the competition and therefore was unable to take part in the event.
Sunday’s individual competition was affected by difficult weather conditions. Heavy snowfall challenged the athletes on the large hill and led to an unpredictable competition. Anze Lanisek handled the conditions best and celebrated his first individual victory in Zakopane with jumps of 138 and 137 meters. With a total score of 278.1 points, the Slovenian defeated Jan Hoerl, who had been in the lead after the first round with a jump of 144.5 meters but was unable to maintain that level in the final round. Hoerl’s second jump of 135.5 meters resulted in a deficit of 13.3 points and second place overall. Manuel Fettner completed the podium with 262.7 points after two consistent jumps of 135.5 and 135 meters.
While Lanisek celebrated his 11th World Cup win and his third victory this winter, the competition was disappointing for overall World Cup leader and Four Hills Tournament winner Domen Prevc. After finishing 12th in the first round, he dropped back significantly in the final and ended the competition in 27th place.
In front of around 30,000 spectators, Polish veteran Kamil Stoch missed out on the final round at his last appearance on home soil. The best Polish athlete of the day was Kacper Tomasiak in 11th place. Despite his difficult competition, Domen Prevc remains in the yellow bib as overall World Cup leader and continues the season with a comfortable lead.