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Strict FIS Suit Checks Upend Four Hills as Zajc Is Disqualified Again, Suspended

New chip certification with start-area spot checks is yielding a surge of disqualifications under chief controller Mathias Hafele.

Overview

  • FIS reports about 21 disqualifications this season as the tightened material controls are enforced at the Four Hills Tournament.
  • Slovenia’s Timi Zajc failed suit checks twice—by 3 millimetres in Oberstdorf and 4 millimetres in Garmisch—received a red card, and is barred from Sunday’s event in Innsbruck.
  • Slovenia protested a pre-jump inspection in Garmisch, but Hafele said the suit checked was the one Zajc intended to use and the protest was rejected.
  • Other athletes were removed in Garmisch, including Jason Colby and Fatih Arda Ipcioglu, and Zajc became the fifth red-card case after earlier sanctions for Alex Insam, Ipcioglu, Mihnea Spulber and Tamara Mesikova.
  • The regime now requires chip-tagged suits matched to recorded body data, strict dimensional and air-permeability limits, and on-site container checks with occasional surprise measurements at the start.