Nordic Ski World Championships

[Ezsuds81]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2005/02/21/2003224069

Rok Benkovic leaps to big victory

Teenager Rok Benkovic kept his cool on the second leap Saturday in ski jumping and earned the first medal in Slovenian history at the Nordic Ski World Championships. :cheers:

The 18-year-old student, who had never reached a podium at a World Cup, uncorked a 91m leap as the last jumper on the HS100 hill to seal the title.

Afterwards, he was mobbed by his Slovenian teammates.

"I was a little shaky. I just said to myself, `just like the first jump,'" Benkovic said.

Helped by a backwind, Benkovic took a big lead with the day's best jump of 101m. He finished with 256.0 points.

Jakub Janda of the Czech Republic claimed silver with 249.5, just edging World Cup leader Janne Ahonen at 249.0.

Benkovic's big first jump left him with a sizable five-point lead after the first round.

[claudia]

I wanted to post this, but I thought noone would know what I´m talking about anyway. :rolleyes:
Oh, and Slovenia won the team bronze medal yesterday! :D

Does anyone here know anything about ski jumping?
There is a ski jump in Slovenia, it´s called Planica (actually Lasse Otessen holds the world record from 1997 in ski flying on the Slovenian ski jump, which is 695 feet). I wanted to walk all the way to the top once and I was dizzy just from looking down from half of the track. I swear I have no idea how these guys do that, but I greatly admire them for it. They must be pumped up with adrenalin every day. It´s a great experience to see them "fly" live!

[claudia]

A pic from Planica:

<a href="http://img148.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img148&image=planica23zq.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img148.exs.cx/img148/4932/planica23zq.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>