Jernej Damjan wins World Cup ski-jumping event
Kuusamo, 26 November - Slovenia's Jernej Damjan won today's ski-jumping World Cup event in Kuusamo, Finland, securing his second career World Cup victory.
Planica
Slovenia ski-jumper Jernej Damjan
Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA
File photo
Damjan jumped 140 and 142 metres, winning 301.4 points, thus placing ahead of Norway's Johann Andre Forfang (126.5 and 142 metres, 298.6 points) and Germany's Andreas Wellinger (140 and 140 metres, 293 points).
This is the 65th victory for Slovenian ski jumpers in individual events, with Peter Prevc leading with a total of 22 victories.
Damjan, 24, had previously won an event in Sapporo in January 2014. "I'm surprised. I knew I can currently jump well, but not that well," he said after the event.
Anže Semenič placed 17th, Peter Prevc 23rd and Tilen Bartol 29th. Anže Lanišek and Robert Kranjec failed to make it to the finales, while Jurij Tepeš was out already in Friday's qualifications.
Slovenia's team - Semenič, Lanišek, Damjan and Prevc - ended fifth in yesterday's team event, which was won by Norway.
This comes after a disappointing World Cup opener last weekend, when Prevc finished 20th as the best Slovenian individual and the team ended sixth, the worst performance for the team under coach Goran Janus.
Due to the poor performance, the newspaper Dnevnik said earlier this week that Slovenia is in the second league, finding some solace in the fact that it had the youngest team with two debutants.
Next World Cup ski-jumping events will be held next weekend in Russia's Nizhny Tagil.