The team competition in Willingen was once again blown away by the wind. The main victim of the more than borderline conditions was the Slovenian Timi Zajc, who showed a record jump, but then fell badly. The Slovenian coach did not spare criticism.
Andreas Wellinger described Timi Zajc’s jump as one of the “wildest I’ve ever seen”, Sven Hannawald says he got goosebumps at the sight and called the whole spectacle “madness”.
It was no less than that, because after the Slovenian easily surpassed the previous record of 152 meters in the air, he sailed almost ten meters further. When Zajc finally hit the ground after 161.5 meters, he was almost completely over the slope.
The fact that the 22-year-old withstood the gigantic forces during the landing and only suffered minor injuries in the subsequent fall was one thing above all: pure luck. All athletes, coaches and experts agreed afterwards.
“Fortunately, Timi is doing well,” said Slovenian coach Robert Hrgota from the soul of everyone present after the demolition. There was no question for the coach who was responsible for the drama. “I think they stopped the competition too late,” he criticized the competition management, who ignored many warning signals and only stopped jumping when it was almost too late.
“The conditions were just not good enough to jump safely. I think that should be a warning for the future. It is imperative that safety comes first before long jumps,” Hrgota called for a rethinking of conditions like they prevailed in Willingen on Friday.
“Sickest Jump I’ve Ever Seen”
In Norway, too, experts and former ski jumpers only shook their heads at Zajc’s insane jump. “This is without a doubt the sickest jump I’ve ever seen. It was absolutely crazy,” said former “long-distance expert” Anders Jacobsen to “NRK”.
And ex-jumper Johan Remen Evensen said: “You could see early on that the jumps were just going too far. That [der Sprung von Zajc] was one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen on a hill.”
Norway’s top star Halvor Granerud agreed with the experts. In his eyes, too, the competition management in Willingen did something wrong.
After seeing the Slovenian’s jump, Granerud admitted that he was “not looking forward to his own jump”. “Jumps like that scare you a bit about what can happen. Because it’s very uncomfortable when you land on flat ground at 120 km/h.” Zajc had to experience this on Friday in Willingen. In the end, the fact that he got away with a few bruises was an even bigger miracle than his record jump.