Planica - The Ski Flying World Championships at Slovenia's Planica will start on Friday with the first two rounds of the individual event. Four Slovenian jumpers will be in the competition. One of main favourites is Markus Eisenbichler of Germany, who topped Thursday's qualifiers.

Slovenia will be represented by Bor Pavlovčič, Timi Zajc, Anže Lanišek and Domen Prevc and another 36 jumpers will take part in the individual event, which will conclude on Saturday with two more rounds.

Eisenbichler, the winner of the last World Cup event on the Brothers Gorišek hill at Planica in 2019, has put his name among the favourites as he won the qualifiers with what was not actually the longest jump.

The longest flight was taken by Michael Hayböck of Austria, who landed at 242.5 metres for second place in the qualifiers. Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway, the winner of the last three World Cup events, was third.

Missing out was Slovenia's Peter Prevc, one of the heroes of Planica and former world champion and record holder, who failed to show a good form in internal Slovenian qualifiers during the official training.

Also out of the individual event is the current world record holder Stefan Kraft of Austria (253.5 metres in Vikersund in 2017), who has aggravated a back injury.

The Ski Flying World Championships, which is held without spectators due to the Covid-19 protocol and for the first time in Planica under floodlights in the afternoon hours, will wrap up on Sunday with the team event.