The German ski jumpers led by the currently unstoppable Pius Paschke celebrate a confident victory in the “Super Team” competition in Titisee-Neustadt.
Pius Paschke fell into Andreas Wellinger’s arms after the German ski jumping gala in the Black Forest, while national coach Stefan Horngacher was in the stands cheering the coup in his adopted homeland: The DSV Eagles continued their fabulous start to the season at the first “World Cup at home” and won the ” Won the “Super Team” competition in Titisee-Neustadt. Above all, high-flyer Paschke was once again in a league of his own.
“You slowly get used to it. But I got into it really well from the first jump,” said Paschke on ZDF. The three-time individual winner of the season and World Cup leader was also the best jumper of the day on the Hochfirstschanze. He flew over 140 m three times and also impressed TV expert Severin Freund.
“That’s extra class, he’s got one jump like another at the moment,” said former world champion Freund. Because Wellinger was also completely convincing in the “mini-team format”, the two DSV Eagles were well ahead of Austria (850.0) and Norway (829.2) after three rounds with 873.3 points.
The 34-year-old Paschke, who went from being a shadow man for many years to becoming a world-class jumper, was the man of the opening day with three sparkling jumps of 143.5, 140.0 and 142.5 m. The two-time Olympic champion Wellinger also showed no weakness with 138.5 and two 137.0 m.
“It was a perfect ski jumping day, the jump was great, the performance was great – an ideal start to the weekend,” said Wellinger, referring to the two individual jumps on Saturday and Sunday (4 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport). Horngacher, who lives within sight of the ski jump, was also extremely satisfied: “The consistency was exceptionally good, the boys did their thing.”
It was the sixth win of the season for the German ski jumpers. Paschke had previously won three times and Wellinger once. At the start in Lillehammer, Katharina Schmid and Selina Freitag also won the mixed competition. Accordingly, the two best Germans entered the competition in a fairly fresh format as favorites.
In the “Super Team” format, two jumpers per team compete over three rounds each. In the men’s World Cup, this competition was held for the first time in Lake Placid in the 2022/23 season, after which there were three more competitions. The previous only German victory was in February 2023 by Karl Geiger and Wellinger. Only at the premiere was the German duo not on the podium – Wellinger was always part of the German “Super Team”.