December 18, 2018
The weekend saw ski-jumping action in the Ruka (Finland) leg of the FIS Continental Cup Ski Jumping contest, with Slovenian jumpers taking the top two places at the end of the competition on Sunday. Jurij Tepeš secured victory with jumps of 135.0 and 135.5, giving him 269.1 points. Ziga Jelar landed second on the scoreboard with jumps of 133.5 m and 138.0 m, gaining 267.9 points. These two finished around 10 points ahead of the next competitor, Norway’s Joachim Hauer (129.5 m, 142.0 m, 258.6 points).
As well as these two podium-takers, the rest of the Slovenian team put in solid performances, with Nejc Dezman in 8th place and Andraz Pograjc finishing 10th, while Tomaz Naglic was 16th, and Bor Pavlovcic 17th.
However, at the end of the weekend Poland’s Tomasz Pilch was first in the overall rankings, with 272 points, and he had the longest jump of the contest, at 143 m. Slovenia’s. Ziga Jelar (224 points) and Nejc Dezman (177 points) are now in second and third places, with the next leg of the competition taking place after Christmas, on December 17 and 28, in Engelberg, Switzerland.
The ladies’ competition was won by Finland’s Juho Ojala, with 128.5 m and 129.0 m. The highest-ranking Slovenian was Miran Zupancic, who came in at 37th place with 116.0 m, and thus did not qualifyy for a second jump. The full results of the weeknend can be found here on the FIS site, here.
While the jumpers often make it look easy, there’s a lot more to it than just having the courage to hurtle down the slope, as shown in this video of Tepeš wiping out at the end of an otherwise successful jump in Vikersund, in 2016.
