Slovenes fly high at Continental Cup
The top six from Saturday’s afternoon round consists of, from left, Joacim Oedegaard Bjoereng of Norway, Ziga Jelar of Slovenia, Philipp Raimund of Germany, winner Domen Prevc of Slovenia, Luca Roth of Germany, and Markus Schiffner of Austria at the FIS Continental Cup meet at Pine Mountain in Iron Mountain. (Dave Kallmann photo)
Ziga Jelar of Slovenia lands his final jump during competition at the FIS Continental Cup meet Sunday at Pine Mountain in Iron Mountain. (David Kallmann photo)
The top six from Saturday’s afternoon round consists of, from left, Joacim Oedegaard Bjoereng of Norway, Ziga Jelar of Slovenia, Philipp Raimund of Germany, winner Domen Prevc of Slovenia, Luca Roth of Germany, and Markus Schiffner of Austria at the FIS Continental Cup meet at Pine Mountain in Iron Mountain. (Dave Kallmann photo)
Ziga Jelar of Slovenia lands his final jump during competition at the FIS Continental Cup meet Sunday at Pine Mountain in Iron Mountain. (David Kallmann photo)
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IRON MOUNTAIN -- It was a clean sweep for the Slovenia ski jumping team at the 2022 Marshfield Clinic-Dickinson Continental Cup ski jumping tournament on Pine Mountain over the weekend.
After Ziga Jelar won the morning jump on Saturday, teammate Domen Prevc topped the competition in the afternoon jump and then put the finishing touch on his best weekend ever in Continental Cup competition with a victory in the Sunday session.
Prevc jumped 130 meters, or 426.5 feet, on the longest of his two jumps on Sunday and accumulated 265.6 total points to edge Jelar (261.1 points).
Other athletes who made the podium on Sunday included Michael Hayboeck of Austria (third with 257.8), Robin Pederson of Norway (fourth with 251.2) Joacim Oedegaard Bjoereng of Norway (fifth with 250.1) and Kilian Maerkl of Germany (sixth 248.8).
Ironically, Prevc's day didn't start out so well.
"Yeah, I mean today I woke up quite tired," the 22-year-old said. "Some nights I (don't) sleep well. But then I managed to prepare myself, and yeah, it wasn't so windy today. And I made two really good jumps so it was only on me. Not on the wind, not on anything else."
Prevc said the Saturday session was "a bit windy and chilly" but, because it was his first time at Pine Mountain, he didn't know what the normal conditions were. But those with experience at the Pine Mountain event, which was held under snowy, windy conditions on Saturday, filled him in.
"I don't know how it's usually, but the guys said that it's like that only one in a 10 year," Prevc said.
Jelar, 24, had never been on Giant Pine Mountain before Friday either. He recorded the best jump of the training session at 136.5 meters, or 448 feet. He went 410 feet, or 125 meters, on the longest of his two jumps Saturday morning and had the highest combined score at the end of the morning round.
He remarked after the awards ceremony on Saturday that Slovenian athletes seem to do well in the U.S., noting Luka Doncic's recent success with the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.
"I think we like this country," he said with a grin.
Jelar gave the renovated Pine Mountain ski jump high marks. "It's amazing," he said. "It was worth every penny that they built it with."
Prevc echoed Jelar's positive assessment of the event.
"I mean, it's amazing," he said. "The guys did great job and I don't know what to say because it's really something new for me. Like on the top during run, you've got these boys cleaning up during run. They do amazing job. It's not like that in Europe."
The longest jump of the event was 133 meters (436.352 feet) by Hayboeck. The Austrian actually recorded that distance twice over the weekend.
Daily News managing editor Betsy Bloom contributed to this report.