ÖSV “Adler” wins the Nations Cup again after eight years

Because the Austrians, with Michael Hyebok in 10th place directly in front of Stefan Kraft, were later than expected. Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi claimed the overall win in the singles, who finished eighth on Sunday and kept lone stalker Karl Geiger (16) at a distance. For Kobeshi, who eventually beat Geiger with 106 points, this was his second World Cup victory after 2018/19, as was Japan’s. Kraft finished fifth in the overall standings.

The last solo competition of the season featured a big long-distance catch. Lindvik, the half-time leader and world champion in figure skating, won 241.5 meters and 245.5 meters, 8.3 points ahead of Sato (236.5 / 242.5). The Slovenes, who were still second, fifth, sixth, ninth and eleventh after the first round, finished three to seven with a solid performance in the final, led by Petr Breivik. If Sato is not able to improve, it will not be enough for Austria.

“It couldn’t have been nicer. It was a ride in the extreme,” Michael Hyebok happily said after his 244.5m trip in the final, which was also very important to the end result. “I looked down and thought, days like these should only be enjoyed.” in Planica. Now you’re risking everything again.” In escaping, he and his teammates shivered to the end. “We celebrated Marios and Sato a lot because we needed them at the Nations Cup. Now it’s over and I’m able to do my part again. “This is important for all of us, athletes and stewards,” Upper Austria said at the ORF.

Stefan Kraft, who ran out of breath at the end of the season, was also happy despite the failed little crystal ball at the Figure Skating World Cup. “I wasn’t so nervous there before. Because you don’t see the points and you don’t know if it’s going to work out. It’s great that we won (the Nations Cup), it’s stuck in our heads. Now we can be very proud that we got it again.”

“Very shivering at the end, I was almost too old for that to be possible,” said 36-year-old Manuel Wittner, after an exciting season for him. “It wasn’t cool, but it was all nicer still working on it.” He heard from him that he would like to add next season after all.

For Austria, that was their 19th Nations Cup win after a disappointing fourth place last year, and the Norwegians are second in the all-time standings with nine successes. Luck returned a little for ÖSV: in 2012/13 and 2001/2002 Austria lost the Nations Cup by only six points (for Norway) and 51 points (for Germany).

The end of the season made coach Andreas Widholzel very happy. “The athletes and the whole team did a great job this year. Olympic gold and silver, World Championship bronze, Raw Air win and now the Nations Cup. We had a strong, compact team and we’ve grown even more as a team,” summed up the former world-class jump car. Of course you still have potential, which should be exploited next season. “But we have celebrated a lot of great successes together this year. The strength of the team is that we get along well, we analyze well, we work a lot and we stand together. Personally, I think this is really great.”

After just four competitions, the Volleyball World Cup went to Ziga Gellar with 270 points ahead of fellow Slovenian Timi Zajk (260) and Kraft, who missed the small crystal ball by 46 points. Zajc won the Planica 7 classification (all competition and qualifying jumps), Kraft ranked sixth there.

On Sunday, farewell to a great ski jump, too: Severin Freund. The German was one of several athletes to drop bars for good at the end of the season. He was the last German to win the World Cup in 2015 and Olympic gold with the team in 2014. The now 33-year-old friend has managed to celebrate a total of 11 medals at the World Championships in Ski Jumping and Snowboarding and racked up 22 individual victories, most recently in November 2016 in Finland .