Ski Jumping: Forfang and Johansson secured two Olympic medals
Johann André Forfang and Robert Johansson secured silver and bronze in the ski jumping small hill event in Pyeongchang. Andreas Wellinger from Germany won the Gold medal.
– I’m incredibly happy now. It’s awesome, says silver medalist Forfang to Eurosport after retaining the second place from the first jump.
Forfang was in split 2nd place, along with Polish Kamil Stoch, after his first jump of 106 meters. While Stoch was not able to copy his first jump, Forfang jumped 109.5 meters and secured his position after the final round was completed.
But there were be two Norwegian Olympic medals in the ski jumping event this evening. Robert Johansson impressed with 113.5 meters in the final round. He took advantage of the head wind and also had a decent landing. Thus he jumped into bronze position from the 10th place he held after the first jump.
– It truly means a lot. It’s hard to put it into words just now, but it’s a dream which has come true, Johansson tells Eurosport.
German athlete, Andreas Wellinger, won after being in 5th place after the first round. The German landed at 113.5 meters and was awarded 259.3 points in total.
Fantastic
Forfang and Johannson ended up with 250.9 and 249.7 points respectively, thus securing two Norwegian Olympic medals.
Coach for the Norwegian jump team, Alexander Stöckl, was ecstatic when Eurosport talked to him.
– It’s amazing that we end up with two medals. It was a difficult event, and we were lucky too. Look at Poland that were left with the last two jumpers, says Stöckl.
The Polish duo Stefan Hula and Kamil Stoch, who jumped last in the final round, had to content with 5th and 4th place. If both had a good jump, Norway would be left without medals.
Windy and cold
It was both icy and cold in the hill when the jumpers were going to fight for the medals on Saturday. I Additionally, the wind came in from all directions, which meant that the competition was delayed several times, as several jumpers were recalled while waiting for fairer conditions.
Daniel-André Tande jumped from 13th to 6th place with a jump of 111 meters in the final round.
Andreas Stjernen ended in 15th place after jumps of 104 and 103.5 meters. He was better pleased with Forfang and Johansson than he was with his own effort.
– It was amazing, it’s really big, Stjernen says about his teammates’ performance.
OK, but not good enough
Stjernen was almost certain that Forfang was going to finish with a medal after his 2nd place after the first round, but silver was in excess of what he was hoping for.
– It was beyond all expectations, says Stjernen.
His own jumps he was not very satisfied with.
– It’s OK, but not good enough. Because they were not long enough to be competitive, says Stjernen and adds that he must try to reset himself before the competition in the big hill.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today.
