Ski Jumping World Cup: The end of the season

Here is live coverage of the Ski Jumping World Cup. The season dominated by Domen is over, and fortunately it ended happily. 

 

 

Kulm, ski flying

Domen Prevc won the first practice round and was second in the second. Domen third in qualifying, so we're going in the wrong direction. But what exactly happened there? One Norwegian DSQ, another NPS, like Anze! Apparently Anze tripped and his suit went bad, the margins are small.

What is FIS doing? Was this below written while being drunk and as a joke? Domen's world record is 254.5 meters, and jumping over it in Kulm would require death, the hill is too small for that.

 

 

Saturday

Viaplay only shows the competition online. Viaplay had changed its system so that households must be registered. But it refused to send the required email on any device. You're doing a great job, Viaplay, always. We're paying for nothing when even one of the paid channels doesn't show properly.

The longest jump of the trial round for Domen. I saw that jump afterwards on Twitter. 238 meters, a deep squat landing with ass slanting to the ground. Is that why the jury lowered the stage for Domen in the first two rounds of the race?

Domen in second after the first round. Domen won by 1.1 points ahead of Embacher, who jumped well all weekend, with the others far behind.

Viaplay didn't show the award ceremony, even though the broadcast was only online. Viaplay gives me more reasons to hate itself every day.

Ren missed Friday's qualifier due to flight issues and is now stuck in Dubai due to airspace closure. Trump's fault!

 

Sunday

The race is even on TV, amazing.

Domen won the qualifying. 240.5 meters with bad style points, so did his ass hit the ground again, or worse? The answer.

Domen in the lead after the first round. I was scared when the wind turned against him. Wellinger in fifth place.

Domen won. 245,5 meters, took Peter's hill record. How many of the jumps this weekend were deep squat landings? I was spooked when it seemed to go too far. Andreas Wellinger fifth.

Tomofumi didn't make it to Kulm on Saturday. On Sunday, he got two personal bests and fourth place, only 0.3 points off the podium, on borrowed skis. Ren, on the other hand, is still stuck in Dubai.

 

Lahti

Domen has never done well in Lahti, so expectations are low. Friday's one-round race will determine whether Domen can break the streak of consecutive wins.

Ren is still stuck in Dubai, but tries to get to Lahti by Saturday. He can send the bill for lost earnings directly to Trump.

Friday

Domen won the first training round. But shouldn't Domen have have no chance in Lahti?

Domen won, and FIS social media was already glowing with a record seventh consecutive victory and a confirmed victory in the overall World Cup. Domen's inspection took a suspiciously long time, and then I noticed that Raimund was being congratulated. Domen was disqualified because his skis were too long (1 cm). Quite a scandal. This is what some people have been hoping for for a long time. Raimund's first victory, and Zografski's first podium.

"He won, but he lost. He lost, but he won."

And only a little later did it dawn on me that despite the disqualification, Domen secured the World Cup victory. Still, it's pretty embarrassing for FÍS to glorify that and Domen's Matti Nykänen achievement after the disqualification...

"Domen forgot to eat his sandwich." The allowed length of skis depends on the weight of the jumper... 100 grams...

 

Domen Prevc: "I need to calibrate the scale in the hotel. It showed 59.5, but on the hill it showed 59.4. I was 100 grams too light. They disqualified me, and I have the Crystal Globe - definitely not the way I wanted, but I will remember this day forever."

 

How does this work? Do ski jumpers travel with their own scales? I guess hotel rooms don't come with scales?

I already said that Finland is not a crappy country, but I guess it is... A sad way to ensure a World Cup win. After all, there has been criticism for a long time about how ridiculously small the margins are in ski jumping.

Saturday

Ren has arrived in Lahti! Has Domen eaten enough?

Domen 18th in qualifying, a pretty unsuccessful jump. Has mental issues finally caught up with Domen, or did he "get too fat"?

Domen second after the first round. Wellinger didn't make it to the second round, meaning his recent good development came to an end on the concrete in Lahti.

Domen second in a race won by Tschofenig. It feels bad that Ren could lose his third place in the World Cup to Tschofenig because of Trump.

Domen reportedly checked his weight 30 times today. They suspect the reason for the weight being too light is his new jumpsuit, which is lighter than the previous one.

 

Sunday

Superteam. Naturally, Wellinger is not on the German team, it's a wonder he was at the Olympics.

Domen won the trial round, which Slovenia would have won based on the results.

Ren was disqualified for being underweight, meaning he had unfortunately forgotten to eat his sandwich. Slovenia in the lead after the first round, and second after the second.

Austria wins, Slovenia second and Finland sensationally third. Finland's first podium in 12 years.

 

 

Oslo 

Timi is not on the Slovenian team, and Hörl ended his season due to back problems.

Friday

A little windy here and there and a little delay. Domen won the practice round, shared the win with Embacher in qualifying. Anze third, Aalto fourth, this is scary.

Saturday

Viaplay is not showing the race on TV. The weekend races are in danger due to bad weather.

Domen 42nd, Wellinger 16th, Max leads! First win for Gregor, Max second and Naoki third, Wellinger 17th. Interesting race, nothing else to say.

Sunday

Domen won the qualifying, Anze second. Viaplay will show the race on TV.

A terrible farce and a wind lottery. After the first round "Tomofumi leads the lottery race", Anze second and Aalto third. Domen 9th, Wellinger 12th. Raimund didn't dare to jump. I just hoped that everyone would survive. In the end, the second round was canceled as expected. So Naito's first win and Aalto's first personal podium.

Viaplay of course didn't show the awards ceremony. "If misery had to be defined, it would be Viaplay." 

 

Vikersund, ski flying

In Slovenia, they paint ***** on the wall. If Domen gets a red card, he will not be allowed to participate in Planica. Hoffmann ended his season early.

Friday

They kept changing Domen's start gate on the first practice round. 14-12 (jury), 12-11 (coach), 10-11 (jury). It took a long time for him to get green light. 245 meters, far better than anyone else. It looks like a deep squat, but at least he didn't fall like I feared. Well, based on the photos it would have been doomed as fallen. Did he get any injuries? Does Domen have any chance to survive?

In the second practice round, Domen won (gate 9) and Wellinger third (gate 14). Wellinger won here a year ago, does he have a chance?

Domen won the qualifying round, Wellinger 33. It seemed like there was quite a tailwind.

Saturday

Domen won the practice round, quite a few gates lower than the others.

I was hoping that Tschofenig would have a short jump, and my secret wish came true, he didn't make it to the second round. It's so annoying that Ren could lose third place in the World Cup because of Trump. Roju was disqualified for being underweight, I guess he's been in the sauna too much with Domen.

A failed jump for Domen, third after the first round. Wellinger 8.

Domen fifth, Wellinger 7. Embacher finally gets his first career win.

 

Sunday

Kasper fell in qualifying and hit his head, qualifying was cancelled, trial round was cancelled, the competition was postponed all the time, finally it was cancelled.

Planica, ski flying

I've been waiting for this weekend for a long time, but I'm also terribly afraid that Sunday's awards ceremony won't be shown in Finland. Yle is showing the race the same as last year, when all the awards ceremonies were shown in the Arena. What if they're not shown now? I can't stand it, and I'm thinking about setting up illegal streams just to be sure.

Bad weather is forecasted. Hoffmann will return for the last race because he's in the top 30 of the World Cup.

 

Thursday

Early wake-up, qualification at 11 am. When I woke up, only the first practice round was going on, and for some reason the EPG claimed that the broadcast had started an hour earlier... did the TV think that the clocks were already being turned now? Not only had the schedule been grossly advanced, but the weather postponed it. But it is rare to see practice jumps on Finnish TV. I missed Wellinger's jump (20th), Domen 4th. No second practice round.

Anze won the qualifying, Domen second, Embacher third, Wellinger 31st. I remember well how a year ago Anze won the last race of the season, and Domen set a world record.

Weather warning and hazard bulletin for Friday and Saturday. Wind and up to 15cm of snow.

Friday

After the first round, Domen is leading, Ren second, Wellinger eighth. Need more people between Ren and Tschofenig, wink wink for Wellinger.

Domen wins, Ren second, Tschofenig third. Oh my, that gap needed some filling. I can't stand it if Ren isn't on the podium on Sunday. Wellinger 8. Embacher fell on the descent.

Yle didn't show the awards ceremony, so there's no hope for Sunday? I feel like crying because of that.

 

Saturday

A normal four-man team competition, what the hell? In this day and age?

I can't say I was terribly interested. Slovenia's fourth man is such a weak link that they have no chance. And how are Germany doing with Wellinger as the anchor?

After the first round, Slovenia and Germany had a tough fight for fourth place, with Austria and Japan fighting for victory.

The initial flight of Domen's first jump was even more frightening to watch than usual. And apparently for a good reason! On the trial round Domen almost fell. Too scary!

 

 

And... in the second round, Domen had the same kind of head-butt as in the practice round, but somehow managed to stretch it to less than 200 meters. It's a pretty bad moment to forget how to jump, all three jumps on Saturday were similar hazards. Doesn't bode well for tomorrow's season finale.

 

 

Before the last jumpers, Norway had somehow taken a surprise lead, but Forfang dropped Norway to third. Unfortunately, Austria won, Japan second. Slovenia fifth, Germany fourth.

Yle showed the award ceremony. Not yesterday, certainly not tomorrow either?

For some reason after that there was some individual award ceremony according to the situation at Planica 7, no sense. Yle cut off the broadcast just when Domen was standing on the highest podium.

Sunday

Turning the clocks, or waking up before ten in the old time. Two clocks rang at the same time again, like a year ago. Domen had won the trial round.

It went well until Embacher, red light. I thought I would miss Domen's jump, and I turned on the recording. But I didn't. The conditions changed, and the last jumpers' jumps went badly, except for Domen. Amazing jump, no wobble. Domen third after the first round, Wellinger 10th. Tschofenig far too many places ahead of Ren.

Domen second in the race, another amazingly calm jump. Lindvik won. Wellinger 11th. The conditions did spoil the race.

Domen won Planica 7, Ren dropped to fifth. In addition to the World Cup, Domen also won the Ski Flying Cup.

 

 

It makes me cry that Tschofenig beat Ren. As an evil person, I hoped for Tschofenig to be disqualified, although I don't even know if that would have been enough. Ren is the moral third in the World Cup. Ren didn't get to a single podium, so the defeat is complete. Ren looked really depressed when he was leading the race...

With the help of a VPN (Singapore), I was able to watch the FIS live broadcast of the race on Youtube. Just in case Yle wouldn't show the awards ceremony, but luckily it did. I didn't have to try, for example, for illegal streams from Poland. But is a VPN a solution to not having to pay for the crappy Viaplay?

 

 

There is still the dangerous Red Bull event left in the season, where this time Janne Ahonen is also a team captain. I finally managed to find information that the event in question, Red Bull Target Jumping, is already on Wednesday, April 1st.