Andreas Wellinger won the start of the 72nd Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, giving the German ski jumpers the dream start they had hoped for.
In the ecstasy of victory, Andreas Wellinger immediately threw his fists into the air after landing, fell into the arms of his teammates – and 25,500 fans in the Oberstdorf madhouse completely freaked out: The two-time Olympic champion gave the German ski jumpers a fairytale start to the 72nd season with his opening victory. Four Hills Tournament. The dream of the first tour triumph since Sven Hannawald 22 years ago is now alive and well.
“It’s unbelievable, I’m extremely happy. There was an incredible lightness there. Winning in front of this audience is unbelievable,” said Wellinger, who could hardly be contained with joy, while the crowd sang and announced: “We’re celebrating all night long! “
Wellinger had every reason to do so. The Ruhpolding native achieved a dream jump of 139.5 m in the first round and a strong 128.0 m in the final (309.3 points) ahead of the two-time tour winner Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan (306.3) and Austria’s top favorite Stefan Kraft (298.9 ) through.
The second best German was Oberstdorf local hero Philipp Raimund in a strong sixth place, who overtook his great club colleague Karl Geiger (7th) with his best career result.
High-flyer Pius Paschke came in eleventh. Geiger celebrated the last of 23 German victories in Oberstdorf in 2020.
Wellinger refers to a “brutally difficult path”
Wellinger had experienced his lowest point two years ago in Oberstdorf when he failed to qualify in 51st place, the aftermath of his serious knee injury in 2019.
“The journey here was brutally difficult, that makes me extremely proud,” said Welliger, who made his final and historic return with his first daily victory on his tenth tour in a dreamlike manner: never before in the World Cup era (since 1979) has a jumper won a tour competition after a torn cruciate ligament.
“It was flawless from Andi, just great. And he showed it at the most important time,” enthused the otherwise critical national coach Stefan Horngacher about Wellinger, who had already finished second on the tour in the winter of his individual Olympic victory in 2017/18.
And Geiger was very happy for his teammate: “He did a killer jump in the first round, really cool!”
Defending champion Granerud has a “terrible day”
With the equivalent of 1.66 m ahead, Wellinger travels to the second stop on the tour in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The qualification takes place there on New Year’s Eve (1:45 p.m.) and one day later the traditional New Year’s competition (2 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) – a German jumper has not won in “GAP” since Hannawald 2002.
For Wellinger, the victory in Oberstdorf is only a small step towards a possible tour triumph. In the past 25 editions of the classic, less than half of the opening winners – twelve – were also ahead in the final ranking. Things went even worse for the DSV Adler: They have won ten times at Schattenberg since 1992, only Hannawald brought the lead to the finish.
What is clear, however, is that the reigning tour winner will not also be the new one. The out-of-form Halvor Egner Granerud missed the second round on Friday and no longer has a chance of successfully defending his title. “I’m speechless, it was a terrible day,” said the Norwegian.