Hopp, Johann Andre Forfang | Forfang put out of the pictures from Iceland: – Absolutely insane

– I haven’t been able to think about anything else since yesterday when I heard that he had jumped in Iceland. I’ve been thinking about this “non-stop” and updating Twitter and trying to catch up on all the news. It is completely insane, says Forfang to Nettavisen.

That’s what the Norwegian ski jumper says after Red Bull released a video on Wednesday afternoon of Kobayashi having jumped 291 meters in a giant jumping hill built on top of the mountain Hlíðarfjall in Iceland.

Icelandic RUV reported on Tuesday that the Japanese ski jumper had tried to jump 300 meters then, but then his longest attempt should have been 256 metres. On Wednesday, he should have landed a total of 291 metres.

The official world record set on the ski flying hill in Vikersund is 253.5 meters and belongs to Stefan Kraft.

Kobayashi’s stunt creates reactions in the jumping community. Forfang believes that Kobayashi’s jump of 291 meters is one of the biggest that has happened in the sport.

– Today, a new time calculation was started. It is before and it is after Ryoyu’s world record. We have just witnessed one of the greatest moments in ski jumping history. It is difficult to put big enough words on it, he says.

And although this will not count as an official world record in ski jumping, Forfang believes that it is.

– Definitely. Who is to decide that it is not an official world record? If you watch ski jumping and you care about jumps, there is the world’s longest ski jump. There is no way around it.

– What do you think FIS thinks about Kobayashi’s stunt?

– They are probably not satisfied. There will be a new timetable and I am very excited about what FIS will say and do from here on out, he says.

Forfang believes Kobayashi and Red Bull are challenging the FIS and they set the framework for skiing with what they have done in Iceland.

– They have to deal with this. The skiing we do in the World Cup will never be the same. It will no longer be the world record chase, unless they do something drastic with the regulations and build out the ski jumps of course, he says.

He believes FIS has to find out whether they want to be part of this development or not.

– What Red Bull did today was take our sport back to its roots and make it so simple. It is ski jumping in its simplest and purest form. It’s about pushing boundaries and jumping the furthest. It is insanely interesting to see where our sport will go from here on out, says Forfang.