Top favorite Domen Prevc won the opening competition of the 74th Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf by a frighteningly large margin. Felix Hoffmann and Philipp Raimund were also convincing.
This season’s dominator also dominates the Four Hills Tournament: with jumps of 141.5 and 140 meters, the Slovenian Domen Prevc confidently took the opening victory in Oberstdorf. Timi Zajc (SLO) and defending champion Daniel Tschofenig (AUT) finished in second place with equal points.
Only Raimund and Hoffmann can keep up with the best
They started out as the German hopefuls and were able to live up to expectations. Felix Hoffmann was able to repeat his performance from the last World Cup in Engelberg: with 132.5 and 136 meters he came in fourth place.
But Philipp Raimund, who starts for SC Oberstdorf, also showed that he can keep up with the best. Cheered on by thousands of fans, the runner-up in the qualification flew to sixth place on jumps of 136 and 133 meters.
Wellinger out, Paschke out, Geiger not even there
But the other DSV Adler were disappointed: As in the previous competitions of the season, things didn’t go well for the veterans. Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger lost his duel against Hoffmann after a weak jump of 110.5 meters. The winner of the opening competition in 2023 finished the competition second to last.
Pius Paschke missed the final by 0.3 points. Last year’s sixth in the tour standings, 122.5 meters wasn’t enough for the lucky losers either.
Constantin Schmid (109 m) and Luca Roth (114 m) had no chance against their big opponents Ryoyu Kobayashi (JAP) and Jan Hörl (AUT). The former world champion and Oberstdorf winner Karl Geiger was unable to qualify in 53rd place the day before.