“Impossible to jump!” Radical change of plan at the Ruka World Cup due to wind

Organizers at the Ruka Ski Jumping World Cup have made a late change to Sunday’s program due to persistent, strong winds. The qualifications scheduled for 9:00 a.m. CET were canceled. The updated plan is to begin the second individual competition at 14:50 CET, and it will feature a field of 64 jumpers without a preceding qualification round.

The weather has disrupted the entire weekend. On Friday, after only 25 jumps in the first training session, there was an hour-long break before both training sessions and qualifications were annulled. Conditions improved somewhat on Saturday, allowing training and qualifications to be held, but the first of two planned individual competitions could only be completed over a single round.

That one-round contest was won by Slovenia’s Anže Lanišek, with Japan’s Ren Nikaidō second and Slovenia’s Domen Prevc third. The jury attempted to run the second round, but only eight athletes managed to jump before the wind forced an early stop. The first-round results were confirmed as final.

From a Polish perspective, results were disappointing. Only 18-year-old Kacper Tomasiak reached the (attempted) second round and ultimately placed 18th. Aleksander Zniszczoł, Paweł Wąsek and Kamil Stoch all finished in the 40s on the results list.

For Sunday, with the qualification canceled, organizers aim to salvage the program by sending 64 jumpers straight into the afternoon competition at Ruka’s large hill, weather permitting.