It is the Four Hills Tournament for the Austrians. This was shown again in Innsbruck. Things didn’t go so well for the Germans.
On Saturday the best ski jumpers in the world continued at the Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck. And again it was the Austrians who showed outstanding performances. In the end, Stefan Kraft won ahead of Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig.
Pius Paschke was the best German, finishing in eighth place. He said about the Austrians’ performance on ARD: “They push each other extremely hard.” The 34-year-old summarized his own jumps as follows: “I’m missing something a bit. It’s not quite as light as it was in the winter.”
National coach Stefan Horngacher explained: “We hoped that we would get into the competition better, but we didn’t manage to do that. It looked tense. The athletes want to do the best they can. Sometimes things backfire, and that was the case today so that it backfired. We have to live with it.” Horngacher also confirmed: “The tour is over.”
It wasn’t the Germans’ first round: Felix Hoffmann’s jump was over after 115.5 meters. This meant that the 27-year-old was unable to win the duel against the Pole Jakub Wolny. He also didn’t make it into the second round via the Lucky Losers. Adrian Tittel did a little better. He reached 114 meters. However, Roman Koudelka jumped further with 117.5 meters and won the duel.
Karl Geiger had to prove himself against the American Kevin Bickner. The DSV eagle flew 124 meters, but had problems landing and wobbled significantly. As a result, he also lost his duel and just shook his head. Geiger said afterwards: “It’s just a bit mirrory, a bit slippery. I didn’t do the jump cleanly, then I cut my skis. Luckily I didn’t fall, but that hurts a lot in terms of the posture points. ” (You can read more about the DSV Adler’s setback here.)
Andreas Wellinger made it straight into the second round. The 29-year-old landed after 127 meters. ARD expert Sven Hannawald described Wellinger’s jump and performance as “incredibly important”. Wellinger also clenched his fists and was happy, as was national coach Stefan Horngacher. Pius Paschke advanced confidently with 128.5 meters. Likewise Philipp Raimund, who jumped 124 meters, but was unable to match his performance from the qualification.
Sven Hannawald said about the Germans’ performance: “It’s always a bit bitter because you can actually feel them working it out themselves.” The Austrians dominated again in the first round. Led by Jan Hörl, ahead of Stefan Kraft and Daniel Tschofenig. Paschke was in seventh place after the first round.
Philipp Raimund managed 128.5 meters in the second round and thus made up places. However, Hannawald was annoyed with the DSV eagle because he didn’t get the first jump and said: “You won’t get the first round back that way.” Raimund said on ARD that he felt “tension”. Nevertheless, Raimund initially took the lead, but was quickly replaced by the Austrians Markus Müller and Michael Hayböck.
Andreas Wellinger couldn’t get past the two Austrians either. He showed a solid performance with 124.5 meters in poorer conditions. However, it wasn’t enough to make it to the top. Things went much better for Gregor Deschwanden. The Swiss reached 129 meters. Hannawald described the jump as a “brand”. And with this he took the lead.
Pius Paschke was celebrated by the fans in Innsbruck despite being behind in the overall standings. However, he didn’t have good conditions and landed after 123.5 meters. According to Hannawald, the Austrians flew “in a different league”. Daniel Tschofenig reached 127.5 meters and shouted his joy. With that he sat down in front of Deschwanden. But Stefan Kraft increased that even further with his 132.5 meters. Jan Hörl reached 132 meters and landed behind him.