A welcome sense of achievement just before Christmas: The struggling ski jumping stars Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger gained self-confidence five days before the start of the Four Hills Tournament and recorded their best results of the season – as guest starters at the Italian championships in Predazzo.
In the competition on the small Olympic ski jump in Fiemme Valley, which was advertised as a test competition for the Winter Games and therefore open to foreign jumpers, Wellinger came second and Geiger came fourth. The victory went to the Austrian Stefan Rainer, the “real” Italian champion was Giovani Bresadola in third place.
Wellinger and Geiger had recently left the World Cup after very poor performances and wanted to gain technical security in training with a view to the tour, which begins on Sunday with the qualification in Oberstdorf. In Predazzo they both achieved this with consistently solid competition jumps.
The two veterans love the normal hill: Wellinger became Olympic champion from the small Bakken in 2018 and won World Championship silver three times. “Kleinschanzen-Karle” Geiger became vice world champion and third at the World Championships on the normal hill.