Ren Nikaido and Team Austria win in Rasnov
The Japanese Ren Nikaido celebrated his first big victory at the FIS Grand Prix in Rasnov. Nikaido has almost no international experience in the World Cup, but had proven his potential with top results in the past few weeks in the Continental Cup. In training in Rasnov yesterday and then also at the early Super Team Event today, the 21-year-old was already able to shine. The big success then in Rasnov’s individual competition for Nikaido.
Nikaido also used the wind compensation that was recalculated from this summer for his victory. In his first jump, Nikaido had a clear tailwind, but thanks to the wind compensation he was able to finish the round in second place. Bulgaria’s Vladimir Zografski was in the lead after the first round.
Nikaido then showed nerves of steel in the final and showed a flawless jump, Zografski didn’t get his best round and slipped down to third place in the final, which was still strong. The extremely strong Pole Pawel Wasek placed second.
Daniel Huber injured himself on his first jump after landing and was in fourth place and had to forego the final round. Huber had already felt problems in his knee during training in Planica last week.
Fourth and fifth place went to the two Austrians Manuel Fettner and Daniel Tschofenig, who had won the premiere of the Super Team Event just two hours earlier (see report below).
In the overall Grand Prix ranking, the two Poles Kamil Stoch and Dawid Kubacki have the same lead with 180 points each. Manuel Fettner missed the chance to take the overall lead but is third with 150 points and has kept his chance to win the 2022 Grand Prix with two remaining competitions in Hinzenbach (AUT) and Klingenthal (GER).
The biggest jump in the overall Grand Prix standings was achieved by Pole Pawel Wasek, who gained 7 places and is now fourth (142 points).
Overall ranking FIS Grand Prix
Team Austria wins Super Team Premiere
Two athletes per nation, three rounds, and in the end Austria wins: the premiere of the Super Team Event had already taken place in Rasnov before the men’s individual competition.
Manuel Fettner and Daniel Tschofenig won the first Super Team competition in ski jumping history on Saturday afternoon in Rasnov (ROU). The two Austrians beat the teams from Poland (Stefan Hula and Pawel Wasek) and Japan (Ren Nikaido and Reruhi Shimizu).
“In the end, it was very simple: six good jumps and that was the win, we’re both satisfied and it was a lot of fun today. It’s a bit more stressful than a normal team competition because there are only two people in the team and everyone has to do three jumps, but on the other hand it’s also super cool because if you’re still behind after the second round, you’re back again has the opportunity to catch up and that creates even more excitement,” explained Daniel Tschofenig, for whom success means the first Grand Prix victory of his career. Manuel Fettner celebrated his first Grand Prix victory four weeks ago in Courchevel.
Pawel Wasek and Stefan Hula convinced for Poland. The two Poles lost 13.6 points to the victorious Austrians after 6 jumps. Third place goes to the team from Japan with Reruhi Shimizu and Ren Nikaido. Norway, Switzerland, Slovenia, the USA and Germany took places 4 – 8.
The competition in this form was initially a test: “I think it was an exciting test that we can build on. We will analyze the competition in detail in the coming days and also get the feedback from the teams before we decide how the future will die. Basically, I am very satisfied with the way the competition went today,” explained FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile.
The premiere of the Super Team Event was originally planned for Sunday, but the competition was then brought forward to Saturday due to a strong thunderstorm with a gale announced for Rasnov on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday morning there is still a mixed team competition on the program.
The men’s Grand Prix continues next weekend in Hinzenbach (AUT).