Olympic ski jumping champion Andreas Wellinger flew onto the podium in Lahti, Finland and preserved his small chance of winning the overall World Cup.
The 28-year-old from Ruhpolding had to finish second on the Salpausselkä ski jump on Friday, only being beaten by the Slovenian Lovro Kos. It was Wellinger’s eleventh podium finish this winter.
In difficult wind conditions, Wellinger jumped up from fourth place in the second round. After jumps of 129.5 and 126.5 m (257.1 points), Wellinger was three meters behind Kos (262.5/127+134.0), who celebrated his second World Cup victory. Japan’s tour winner Ryoyu Kobayashi came third (254.9).
There could be a little more excitement in the fight for the overall World Cup. Leader Stefan Kraft (Austria) was eliminated in 49th place after a completely unsuccessful jump after the first round. With nine remaining, Kraft leads with 1,546 points ahead of Kobayashi (1,337) and Wellinger (1,258), and there are 100 points for a win.
Old master Kasai eliminated in the first round
The second best German in the catch-up jumping for the competition in Szczyrk, Poland, which was canceled in January, was Stephan Leyhe (Willingen) in eleventh place, Pius Paschke (Kiefersfelden) came in twelfth ahead of Constantin Schmid (Oberaudorf), who returned to the German World Cup team after strong performances in the Continental Cup /21.).
Philipp Raimund had to make do with 23rd place, five-time world champion Karl Geiger (both Oberstdorf) once again fell short of his potential and only came 27th.
Old champion Noriaki Kasai, who had fought his way back into the Japanese A team, competed in his first World Cup competition in Europe in five years, but was eliminated in 38th place after the first round of his 572nd World Cup competition. The 51-year-old made his World Cup debut in Lahti in 1989.