March 3rd, i.e. the “third third”, became a memorable day for the ÖSV ski stars: First, Stefan Kraft got his third win of the season in Lillehammer with jumps of 135 and 137 m. The 28-year-old from Salzburg, team Olympic champion in Beijing, won with 294.1 points, 5.1 points ahead of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi and 7.9 ahead of the German Karl Geiger. Kraft, who was second after qualifying the day before, also took the lead in the “Raw Air Series”. Jan Hörl finished fifth as the second best ÖSV man, Manuel Fettner ninth. It was Kraft’s 24th World Cup victory overall, making him the sole third-best ÖSV-Adler in the all-time best list behind Gregor Schlierenzauer (53 victories/also international record winner) and Andreas Felder (25). He overtook Thomas Morgenstern (23).
On Thursday evening, Sara Marita Kramer made the successful day of ski jumpers from Austria perfect in Lillehammer. After Stefan Kraft’s victory in the men’s category, the 20-year-old from Salzburg clinched her seventh win of the season in the World Cup. Kramer won just one point ahead of Slovenian Nika Kriznar and 8.8 points ahead of her compatriot Ursa Bogataj. Kramer extended her lead over Kriznar in the overall World Cup to 244 points.
The Austrian alpine skier Magdalena Egger won the gold medal in the women’s World Junior Downhill Championships in Panorama (Canada) on Thursday. The 21-year-old finished 0.13 seconds ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher and 0.25 seconds ahead of American Lauren Macuga and now holds a total of four Junior World Championship gold medals. “I was very nervous at the start. I’m brutally glad it worked out,” said Egger.
After the victories of Stefan Kraft and Sara Marita Kramer in Lillehammer, the young ski eagles together with Magdalena Egger seamlessly followed the success of the “big ones” in Zakopane: At the Junior World Championships in Zakopane, the ÖSV team celebrated in the men’s competition on Thursday even a triple victory on the normal hill: Daniel Tschofenig won gold ahead of his compatriots David Haagen and Markus Müller.
