The bizarre 161.5 meter flight of the Slovenian Timi Zajc keeps the ski jumping scene busy at the World Cup in Willingen.
“Something like that really shouldn’t happen, you have to say that. That’s very dangerous. I hope he’s safe. Something like that can turn out 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 reached a utopian 161.5 meters and fell.
The 22-year-old pilot then gave the all-clear. “I’m fine, but I was really scared. It’s far too dangerous for a competition,” said Zajc. The former world-class athlete Andreas Goldberger classified the completely unusual Zajc flight as follows: “It’s like jumping off the five-meter board into dry land. Or you do a squat with 250 kilos.” Previously, the Japanese Yuki Ito had flown 154.5 meters on Friday in the mixed race, which was massively influenced by the wind, and had also not been able to stand the attempt.
