On Sunday in Lahti, Dawid Kubacki was seventh, Kamil Stoch was 11th, and Piotr Żyła 14th. The results are good, but there are definitely no reasons to celebrate.
Stoch showed very good jumps in Lahti – he was second twice in the training series. Kamil showed good jumps in the competitions. This gave him the sixth note in the Saturday team (Poland took only seventh place after Paweł Wąsk was disqualified for his shoes). But in individual competitions he was looking for something all the time and could not find it. That’s why it was only Friday 24th and Sunday 11th.
Żyła jumped in Lahti to his first podium in the season (third place on Friday). Dawid Kubacki for the first time in the ongoing and in fact almost ending edition of the World Cup, he jumped to the top 10 of the competition. His seventh place on Sunday is really something optimistic ahead of Raw Air.
Juroszek on the first trip better than the Olympian Wasek
But – here there must be a big “but” – it is really bad, since before the next edition of the Norwegian tournament we only look at Stoch, ¯y³ę and Kubacki. Żyła turned 35 in January, Stoch will be 35 in May. Kubacki will have his 32nd birthday in March. The three champions are 102 years old together. We wish them the best, we admire all three of them, we are grateful to each of them for the emotions they gave us, we are proud of all of them. But we really would like to finally see someone else.
Kacper Juroszek, who was born in 2001, in Lahti has just passed his first World Cup outside Poland. He was 32 and 40. There is no shame, but no madness either. Paweł Wąsek, born in 1999, did not score either. He was 59th and 38th. This is – unfortunately – a failure. Wąsek received a lot of praise for his Olympic debut. In Beijing, he just jumped solidly. Not from the beginning, because he first lost the competition with Stefan Hula (born in 1986) for a place in the team for the first competition. But on the large hill he took 21st place, and then he started in the team with Stoch, Żyła and Kubacki and was even better than Kubacki. In short – Mustache should follow the blow now, he should regularly score in the World Cup. In fact, it should already be in the top ten. And he has a season with only three top 30 competitions and just 22 points.
Slovenes, German, Austrian, Russian – the rivals’ youth have several hundred points each
A year ago we were delighted with the form of Andrzej Stęka³a. It was a new man from Poland in the world leaders. But this is no young talent, only a jumper born in 1995.
Poland lacks really young talents more and more dramatically. Jan Habdas, born in 2003, made his debut with 46th place in Wisła and later in Zakopane he lost in qualifying. Tomasz Pilch, born in 2000, was 41st, 42nd this winter and dropped out of the qualifying round twice. Jarosław Krzak, also born in 2000, got one chance and did not qualify for the competition in Wisła.
In fact, in Raw Air, which is already starting on Wednesday, the good jumps of Wąska and Juroszek should be more important for us than the next good performances of Stoch, Żyła and Kubacki. We must place our hopes on these two.
Jumping is generally a sport in which youth often wins, even if things have changed a bit lately and 30-year-olds are more successful. But let’s take a look at this season’s classification. Slovene Timi Zajc, born in 2000, scored 393 points. Wąska’s peers – Lovro Kos and Constantin Schmid – score 348 and 282 points, respectively. The Norwegian Marius Lindvik, who is one year older, is the Olympic champion from Beijing, and in the World Cup he is fourth with 947 points. She is simply one of the biggest stars in the discipline.
But let’s go back to the jumpers born in the 21st century. Daniel Tschofenig, born in 2002, has 205 points. And the Russian talent Danił Sadriejew, born in 2003, has 101 points.
Year after year, other people show their talented youth, and we wait. And it is really hard to believe that we will see the old, distinguished masters jump over our youth. And from the point of view of the future of Polish ski jumping, it is more important than even the next, still possible, podiums of Stoch, Kubacki and Żyła.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
