Dramatic first competition in Nizhny Tagil.

What a crazy competition on Saturday in Nizhny Tagil (RUS). Markus Eisenbichler, who is in top form at the moment and was leading after the first round, caught a gust of wind today in the final round. The Bavarian could have prevented the catastrophe, but he landed after 80 m and fell a lot of places on 28 place. He also lost the leader's yellow jersey to today's winner Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway.

Markus Eisenbichler was very nervous after his 80-meter jump in the frosty Nizhny Tagil. “I'm really angry, also on yourself. But of course I also know, that something like this could always happen, it's part of our sport”, Eisenbichler said, torn between frustration and truth.

The victory today went to the winner from Ruka Granerud. Just like Eisenbichler, The Norwegian is currently in top form. He made two good jumps and overtook the Austrian Daniel Huber. “Conditions were very difficult today, the wind kept changing. I'm sorry about Markus, but I think, it happens to everyone at some point. It happened to me too” – Granerud explained after the competition.

The jump of the day was given by the Norwegian Robert Johansson. 30-the year-old set a new hill record, beating 142,5 meters in the second round and advancing from 25 for third place – incredible. “It's a fantastic day for me, third place and hill record. It's something, what you don't achieve very often" – said the jumper with the characteristic mustache about his success.

The surprise of the day was provided by Thomas Lackner from Austria. Fourth place, near his teammate Daniel Huber, Thomas Lackner gave the Austrian team a reason to celebrate. He scored his first World Cup points, and the Austrian team, decimated after coronavirus infections, achieved a good team result.

Pius Paschke had a career-best fifth place and could be on
well on its way to the podium in one of the next competitions. His coach Stefan Horngacher predicted this already this week. The highest result also for the best Pole today: the sixth by Aleksander Zniszczol.

Another unique story from this eventful competition was written by the young Swiss Dominik Peter: Firstly, he was disqualified after the first jump, because he adjusted his suit while sitting on the starting bar. But later it turned out, it was due to a technical problem, it's not Peter's fault, so the disqualification was revoked. Eventually it took 16 th place and achieved his best result in the history of the World Cup.

Halvor Egner Granerud now leads the overall World Cup with 300 points, Markus Eisenbichler is second from 283 points.

The second competition in Nizhny Tagil will start on Sunday at 16:30 Central European Time.