At the point where the competitors land, Timi Zajc takes off again. The Slovenian only landed after 161.5 meters at the Mixed Ski Jumping World Cup in Willingen. He falls, luckily remains unhurt, and can laugh about it again. But the scene is alarmed.
Timi Zajc was able to laugh again quickly. "Greetings from space," sent the Slovenian ski jumper on Instagram. He put a rocket and the hashtag on a video of his strange ski jump of 161.5 meters
"Something like that shouldn't really happen, you have to say that it's very dangerous. I hope he's safe. Something like that can end really badly," criticized Germany's top athlete Karl Geiger. With strongly changing winds, Zajc had caught a particularly large updraft and was still three to four meters in the air in the actual landing area. Although the Slovenian broke off the jump prematurely, he managed a utopian 161.5 meters. That's 8.5 meters above the current hill record! He was unable to stand the jump and fell, but was largely unhurt.
The 22-year-old pilot gave the all-clear himself. "I'm fine, but I was really scared. It's way too dangerous to compete," said Zajc. "It was one of the wildest jumps I've ever seen," said German Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger on ARD: "He took his arms away, but just kept flying straight."
ARD expert Sven Hannawald praised the 22-year-old's landing, with which he skillfully prevented worse things from happening: "Insanity. Only a few can do that, everyone else tears their knees away and ends up in the hospital. When I see jumps like that, I get goosebumps ." The former world-class athlete Andreas Goldberger from Austria classified the unusual flight as follows: "It's like jumping from a five-meter board into dry land. Or you do a squat with 250 kilos."
Strongly changing winds repeatedly caused delays at the Mühlenkopfschanze, the first round with only 32 jumpers lasted almost 90 minutes. As soon as the round was over, the jury stopped the competition. Germany with Selina Freitag, Karl Geiger, Katharina Althaus and Wellinger was in third place with 409.8 points. Norway (450.6) won ahead of Austria (415.1).
The Japanese Yuki Ito had a formative experience similar to that of Zajc. She had flown at 154.5 meters and had not been able to stand the attempt either. Fortunately, she was also unhurt and was able to joke again on Saturday. She was asked what her goal for the individual competition was. Her answer: "162 meters."
(This article was first published on Saturday, February 04, 2023.)
