Alexander Pointer predicts three-way battle for Ski Jumping glory at Seefeld

The World Championships are currently taking place at Seefeld and are live on Eurosport.

Former Austria coach Pointer is working for Eurosport as an expert during the event and before competition got underway he was asked who he felt were the favourites for the men’s Ski Jumping.

“I have three different favourites. The first one is Kamil Stoch because he has won so many titles and World Championship events – he is now in really good shape and I have a feeling he is able to win a medal this time around, maybe more than one medal.

“The second favourite for me is [Ryoyu] Kobayashi, he has won a lot of competitions this season. After the Four Hills tournament, perhaps he was a little bit tired, but in the last competition at Wellingen he was a winner again. I think he is ready for these World Championships.

“And of course, you have Stefan Kraft. He didn’t perform so good last week, but these hills in Innsbruck are his home hills and he knows exactly how to jump there. Those three are my favourites at these World Championships.”

The Polish team are the defending champions for the team event and Pointer believes that they will retain their title.

“Yes, I would – the Polish are my favourite team at these World Championships. They won in Wellingen and that was really a perfect team competition for them.

“If they do as well as they did in Wellingen, it will be really hard to beat them.”

On the women’s side of the competition Carina Vogt is the defending champion from two years ago in Lahti but she has been struggling in the World Cup this season.

Pointer believes the German has a chance but she will face a real threat from the current World Cup leaders; Maren Lundby, Katharina Althaus and Sara Takanashi.

“The three leaders in the World Cup season have been really strong this season, especially Lundby. Althaus and Takanashi have also done really well so these three are clearly the favourites for this World Championships.

“But let’s see what happens at these Championships because of course Vogt is a chance. We have to see how the first training will turn out and then we can make a better judgement from then. We have to wait one more week.