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Silje Opseth (here on March 9th in Oslo): Nobody has flown further

Photo:

Geir Olsen/AFP

Katharina Schmid narrowly missed the podium and the 200 meter mark in the first World Cup ski flying for women.

The record world champion landed in fourth place among the 17 starters at the Monsterbakken in Vikersund, a good 15 meters short of the podium.

The day's victory went to the Norwegian Eirin Maria Kvandal, the Slovenian Nika Prevc secured early triumph in the overall World Cup.

But Silje Opseth flew into the history books: In the second round, the Norwegian improved Slovenia's Ema Klinec's world record from the previous year by 4.5 meters with a dream flight to 230.5 meters.

During the test run, Opseth had already flown to 236.5 meters, but then fell headfirst into the snow.

Despite abrasions on his face, Opseth competed and took the record.

»She looked like a boxer after a fight.

She is one of the best and has shown that, I am happy for her," said Schmid about the new record holder on ZDF.

The woman from Allgäu was also satisfied with her own competition: “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reach 200 yet, but now I finally had the feeling of flying.”

There had already been a ski flying event for women in Vikersund the previous year, but it did not count towards the World Cup.

Prevc wins the overall World Cup

The fact that Katharina Schmid only achieved 183.5 and 195.0 m visibly annoyed her: the competition on Saturday was not enough to achieve her big goal of breaking the magic mark of 200 m for the first time in her career was canceled due to wind.

The second German starter Selina Freitag landed at 165.0 and 169.5 m and took 16th place.

Kvandal was unbeatable with distances of 202.0 and 212.0 m, meaning she also won the overall ranking of the week-long Raw Air Tour and prize money of 40,000 euros.

Opseth and Klinec completed the podium.

Prevc finished eleventh to be declared the winner of the overall World Cup after 23 of 24 competitions.

Two days after her birthday, she followed in the footsteps of her older brother Peter Prevc, who won the big crystal ball in the winter of 2015/16.

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