Čerťák

Čerťák is a ski jumping stadium with two hills in Harrachov in the Czech Republic.

It was built in 1979 and both hill officially opened in 1980. The venue is most notable for being one of five ski flying hills in the world, though it also has three smaller hills close by. It is owned by the sports club TJ Jiskra Harrachov. Audience capacity is about 50,000. Despite being a flying hill, only two world records have ever set at Čerťák, both in the 1980s. It was also during this time, and into the early 1990s, that many horrific accidents occurred.

The hills The hills are located on the north side of the mountain Čertova hora, not far from the border to Poland. The first hill in Harrachov was built in 1922, but at a different location in town. Later in the 1920s the first hill in Čerťák was built. It was eventually expanded and supplemented with more hills. The ski flying hill was built in 1979 and opened in March 1980.

The large hill in Harrachov was built at the same time as the ski flying hill, and renovated in 1992. This hill has a K-point of 125 m and a hill size of 142 m. The official record is 145.5 m, set by Janne Ahonen on 12 December 2004 during the 2004–05 World Cup season. The unofficial record is 151 m set by Martin Koch (Austria) on 17 December 2004 in a Continental Cup event.

The normal hill has K-point of 90 m, a hill size of 100 m and a hill record of 102.5 m. The two smaller hills have K-points of 70 m (hill record 77 m) and K-point 40 meters (hill record 43.5 m). The standard hill has plastic mats, allowing summer use.

The ski flying hill in Harrachov garnered an early reputation of being quite dangerous from which to jump. In its early years, jumpers achieved a significant height over the knoll, up to 12 m. The result of this height was that a gust of wind or error from the jumper could end catastrophically, and there were indeed many injuries from bad falls. During the World Championship in 1983, injuries were suffered by Steinar Bråten, Horst Bulau and Jens Weißflog. In 1985, Pavel Ploc suffered a violent crash. The venue was eventually closed by the FIS and rebuilt between 1989 and 1992, and has since kept the requirements from FIS. Accidents have still occurred, however: in 1992, Andreas Goldberger fell out of the air at the highest point of his jump and crashed very hard.

Events

Normal hill DateHillsizeCompetitionWinnerSecondThird align=right|  12 December 1997  K90 Masahiko Harada Primož Peterka Dieter Thoma

Large hill DateHillsizeCompetitionWinnerSecondThird10 January 1981  K120WC Roger Ruud Armin Kogler Per Bergerud Hubert Neuper8 January 1983  K120WC Holger Freitag Markku Pusenius Klaus Ostwald9 January 1983  K120WC Pavel Ploc Klaus Ostwald Markku Pusenius14 January 1984  K120WC Jiří Parma Jens Weißflog Pavel Ploc11 January 1986  K120WC Matti Nykänen Ernst Vettori Jiří Parma10 January 1988  K120WCcancelled15 January 1989  K120WC Jan Boklöv Risto Laakonen Ladislav Dluhoš 12 January 1990  K120WC Dieter Thoma Ladislav Dluhoš Jiří Parma16 January 1993  K120WClack of snow17 January 1993  K120WC14 December 1996  K120WC Kazuyoshi Funaki Primož Peterka Takanobu Okabe15 December 1996  K120WC Primož Peterka Andreas Goldberger Kristian Brenden19 December 1998  K120WC Janne Ahonen Ronny Hornschuh Kazuyoshi Funaki20 December 1998  K120WC Janne Ahonen Noriaki Kasai Andreas Widhölzl 7 February 1999  K120WC (rep FH) Janne Ahonen Lasse Ottesen Jakub Sucháček 11 December 2004  HS142WC Adam Małysz Janne Ahonen Georg Späth12 December 2004  HS142WC Janne Ahonen Roar Ljøkelsøy Jakub Janda 10 December 2005  HS142WC Andreas Küttel Michael Uhrmann Janne Ahonen11 December 2005  HS142WC Jakub Janda Janne Ahonen Andreas Küttel9 December 2006  HS142WC lack of snow10 December 2006  HS142WC12 December 2009  HS142WC 13 December 2009  HS142WC 11 December 2010  HS142WCstrong wind; rescheduled to Engelberg12 December 2010  HS142WCstrong wind; rescheduled to Zakopane9 December 2011  HS142WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Daiki Ito Anders Bardal10 December 2011  HS142WC- Norway Tom HildeBjørn Einar RomørenVegard SklettAnders Bardal Austria Thomas MorgensternDavid ZaunerAndreas KoflerGregor Schlierenzauer Slovenia Jernej DamjanJure ŠinkovecPeter PrevcRobert Kranjec11 December 2011  HS142WC Richard Freitag Thomas Morgenstern Severin Freund

Flying hill DateHillsizeCompetitionWinnerSecondThird28-29 March 1980   K165 Steve Collins Armin Kogler Tom Levorstad19-20 March 1983   K185 SFWC Klaus Ostwald Pavel Ploc Matti Nykänen 23 February 1985   K185 WC Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl Miran Tepeš Jiří Parma 24 February 1985   K185 WC strong wind 18 March 1989   K185 WC Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl Mike Holland Jan Boklöv 19 March 1989   K185 WC strong wind 21 March 1992   K185 SFWC(d1) / WC Noriaki Kasai Andreas Goldberger Roberto Cecon 22 March 1992   K185 SFWC(d2) / WC stopped and cancelled; strong wind World Championships Overall (21-22 March) Noriaki Kasai Andreas Goldberger Roberto Cecon 9 March 1996   K185 WC Andreas Goldberger Christof Duffner Jaroslav Sakala 9 March 1996   K185 WC cancelled 6 February 1999   K185 WC next day on large hill 13 January 2001   K185 WC Adam Małysz Martin Schmitt Risto Jussilainen 14 January 2001   K185 WC Adam Małysz Janne Ahonen Martin Schmitt 10 March 2002   K185 SFWC Sven Hannawald Martin Schmitt Matti Hautamäki 19 January 2008   HS205 WC strong wind 20 January 2008   HS205 WC Janne Ahonen Tom Hilde Anders Jacobsen (night) 8 January 2011   HS205 WC Martin Koch Thomas Morgenstern Adam Małysz 9 January 2011   HS205 WC Thomas Morgenstern Simon Ammann Roman Koudelka (night) 2 February 2013   HS205 WC first event next day 3 February 2013   HS205 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Robert Kranjec Jan Matura 3 February 2013   HS205 WC Gregor Schlierenzauer Jan Matura Jurij Tepeš (night) 15 March 2014   HS205 SFWC-I Severin Freund Anders Bardal Peter Prevc 17 March 2014   HS205 SFWC-T strong wind

Hill record

Large hill DateLength 5 January 1980   Ladislav Jirásko59.0 m (194 ft)  6 January 1980   František Novotný75.0 m (246 ft)  6 January 1980   Jaroslav Balcar88.0 m (289 ft)  6 January 1980   Ivo Peterka91.0 m (299 ft)  6 January 1980   Břetislav Počík97.0 m (318 ft)  6 January 1980   Ladislav Jirásko101.0 m (331 ft)  6 January 1980   Ivo Felix103.0 m (338 ft)  6 January 1980   Ivo Felix109.0 m (358 ft)  10 January 1981   Armin Kogler122.0 m (400 ft)  6 February 1983   Pavel Ploc122.0 m (400 ft)  DateLength13 January 1985   Pavel Ploc123.0 m (404 ft)  13 January 1996   Andreas Goldberger129.0 m (423 ft)  14 January 1996   Jakub Sucháček137.0 m (449 ft)  14 January 1996   Kazuyoshi Funaki140.0 m (459 ft)  14 January 1996   Kazuyoshi Funaki141.5 m (464 ft)  10 December 2004   Andreas Widhölzl142.0 m (466 ft)  11 December 2004   Adam Małysz143.0 m (469 ft)  12 December 2004   Janne Ahonen145.5 m (477 ft)  17 December 2004   Martin Koch151.0 m (495 ft)  

Flying hill

Official DateLength27 March 1980   Armin Kogler 176.0 m (577 ft) 19 March 1983   Pavel Ploc 181.0 m (594 ft) 23 February 1985   Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl 183.0 m (600 ft)9 March 1996   Roar Ljøkelsøy 201.0 m (659 ft)9 March 1996   Andreas Goldberger 201.0 m (659 ft) 9 March 1996   Jakub Jiroutek 201.0 m (659 ft)9 March 1996   Jan Balcar 203.0 m (666 ft)9 March 1996   Andreas Goldberger 204.0 m (669 ft)DateLength13 January 2001   Matti Hautamäki 205.0 m (673 ft)13 January 2001   Janne Ahonen 206.5 m (677 ft)13 January 2001   Adam Małysz 206.5 m (677 ft)14 January 2001   Risto Jussilainen 212.5 m (697 ft)9 March 2002   Anders Bardal 212.5 m (697 ft)9 March 2002   Matti Hautamäki 214.5 m (704 ft)18 March 2008   Thomas Morgenstern 214.5 m (704 ft)

Invalid DateLength22 March 1992   Christof Duffner 194.0 m (636 ft)19 January 2008   Thomas Morgenstern 214.5 m (704 ft)9 January 2011   Simon Ammann 215.5 m (707 ft)3 February 2013   Jurij Tepeš 220.0 m (722 ft)

References