Ski jumper Andreas Wellinger won silver on the normal hill at the World Championships in Planica. The two-time winner of the season was only beaten by the Polish titleholder Piotr Zyla in Slovenia. Karl Geiger rounded off the first-class German result with bronze.
“It’s incredibly cool. I really hammered one out with determination,” said Wellinger on the “ZDF” microphone: “The only thing missing for the top were the judges, who only gave me 18.5. But the jumps were really cool.”
National coach Stefan Horngacher said: “Two medals, that’s unbelievable. The last few weeks have been tough. What the boys showed today was brutal strength. I’m very satisfied.” Even at the Four Hills Tournament, the DSV-Adler had disappointed across the board.
Constantin Schmid, who was still close to the podium in fifth place after the first round, fell back to seventh place. Markus Eisenbichler rounded off the good German result as 13th.
Zyla, who was still in 13th place after the first round and sailed to gold with a hill record of 105.0, caused a sensation. The Austrian Stefan Kraft, who was still leading after the first round, fell back to fourth place.
Jens Weißflog, who triumphed for the GDR in Lahti in 1989, remains the last German world champion from the small Bakken. All the following World Cup titles (Martin Schmitt 1999 and 2001, Severin Freund 2015, Markus Eisenbichler 2019) came from the great Bakken.