Traditionally the final competitions of the season
are being held in Planica (SLO). But this time the
events are not taking place on the flying hill,
but on the new large hill.
The first qualification of the weekend in Slovenia
was won by local hero Matjaz Pungertar with a jump
on 128.5 m and 121.7 points. Like his teammate,
also Anze Lanisek jumped on 128.5 m, he finished
second with 119.9 points.
Only 0.3 points behind Lanisek, Andreas Stjernen
of Norway came in third with 127.5 m. He was followed
by Nejc Dezman and Cene Prevc, who provided a great
team result for the hosts in fourth and fifth.
With Tom Hilde in sixth, and Anders Fannemel, who
shared the eighth place with Poland's Piotr Zyla
behind the best Japanese Reruhi Shimizu, also two
more Norwegian came in among the best on Thursday.
The Top 10 in the qualification, that took place
in bright sunshine, were completed by French Vincent
Descombes Sevoie.Some well-known names failed to
make the cut for the first individual competition
in Planica on Friday.
Among them Jernej Damjan (41st), Jan Ziobro (43rd),
Rune Velta (45th), Anssi Koivuranta (56th) and Michael
Neumayer (67th).
The best jump of the already pre-qualified athletes
was shown by the new ski flying World Champion Severin
Freund with 129 m. Thomas Diethart (127 m), Stefan
Kraft (126.5 m) and Anders Bardal (126.5 m) got
closest to him.
