The new ski jumping year can come: Felix Hoffmann and Philipp Raimund also impressed in the qualification in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Four Hills Tournament.
Raimund in fifth and Oberstdorf third Hoffmann in eighth completed the compulsory task confidently on New Year’s Eve afternoon and still had some room for improvement. The measure of all things was once again the Slovenian Domen Prevc, who goes into the New Year’s competition on Thursday (2 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) as the high favorite.
“I’m taking a bit of momentum back with me,” said Hoffmann after his performance: “And I can also take with me that even jumps that aren’t quite good are still enough for the upper midfield.”
Prevc, who won the qualification and competition in Oberstdorf, jumped 139.5 m (150.6 points) in front of 7,000 spectators and came out ahead of the Austrian Jan Hörl (146.2). His compatriot Stephan Embacher came third (143.2), the super talent increased the hill record by half a meter to 145.5 m with a longer run 13 days before his 20th birthday.
Raimund, who reached 135.0 m (141.8 points), and Hoffmann (134.0/139.7) were at least within striking distance of third place. Pius Paschke, who had missed the second round in Oberstdorf and now came in 20th, jumped well.
The DSV problem children are also convincing
The two big German problem children also said goodbye to 2025 significantly improved: Andreas Wellinger, 49th in Oberstdorf, entered the competition in 27th place. Karl Geiger, who failed to qualify for the opening competition, also confidently made it into the top 50 in 31st place. “The jump was important – I had to really think about myself,” said the Oberstdorfer.
Youngster Ben Bayer impressed on equal points with Wellinger in 27th place and is making his second World Cup appearance and his debut in a tour competition on Thursday
Constantin Schmid (51st), Luca Roth (54th) and Max Unbelief (65th) did not make it into the top 50. For them, the tour should be over – national coach Stefan Horngacher is only allowed to take five jumpers instead of nine to the two competitions in Austria.
Norwegian Granerud is disqualified
Meanwhile, the next top jumper after the Slovenian Timi Zajc was disqualified in Oberstdorf. This time, ironically, it was a Norwegian who got hit: Halvor Egner Granerud, 2022/23 tour winner, was disqualified because the leg length of his suit was two millimeters too long – he was injured in the Norwegians’ teasing scandal during the 2025 World Cup.
The qualification day was overshadowed by a serious fall by Estonian Artti Aigro. The 26-year-old fell during training and had to be brought out of the sled. Aigro suffered a partial rupture of the medial ligament in his left knee and a fracture in his left foot and is at risk of being eliminated from the Olympics.