Two days after his victory in the opening competition of the Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, Andreas Wellinger also delivered a strong performance at the second station. The victory in the qualification for the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen went to someone else on Sunday (December 31, 2023).
Andreas Wellinger finished the qualification for the New Year’s competition at the Four Hills Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in second place. The opening winner from Oberstdorf sailed to 139 meters, but, as in training, had a few problems when landing, which pushed him low to the ground. Because of the point deductions, he had to hand over victory in the qualification to the Slovenian Anze Lanisek.
Overall, the German jumpers were in good shape on the last day of the year. All nine athletes from the German Ski Association (DSV) qualified for the competition, even if not everything went smoothly for everyone.
Lift fails – ski jumpers have to climb stairs
Curious side note: Shortly before the top jumpers made their way up, the elevator in the large Olympic ski jump failed. So Wellinger, Kraft and co. take the arduous route up numerous stairs to make it to the ski jump tower. They received support from children who carried their role models’ skis up. Nevertheless: optimal immediate preparation looks different. But this didn’t really have an impact on the performance of the tour favorites.
Current tour runner-up Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan didn’t quite make it into the top group and will contest an earlier knockout duel on New Year’s Day after his 125 meters. Stefan Kraft, third on the podium in Oberstdorf, came sixth (132 meters).
Violinist with an unclean jump
Karl Geiger had a problem shortly after the jump and had to intervene heavily in his jump and it was over after just 122 meters. He will also have to start the competition earlier than hoped. Pius Paschke also had room for improvement and reached 127 meters (25th place). Philipp Raimund (131.5 m) and Stephan Leyhe (127.5) narrowly missed out on the top 10 in 12th and 13th place.
“Today I just skied extremely badly, that was nothing“, explained Geiger after his unsuccessful jump. He had to apply more pressure and generate more speed in the inrun lane in order to be able to keep up with the leaders.
National group closed in competition
The national group with four additional German athletes, which was used for the first time in this competition, was also almost completely convincing. Constantin Schmid (132 m) and Felix Hoffmann (131 meters) were the first jumpers to shine with strong distances.
“I am very satisfied, with the training jumps there were three even jumps. This is how you can end the year“, Schmid explained afterwards. So far this season, the 2022 Olympic bronze medalist has not been able to secure a place in the World Cup; he has to prove himself through performances in the second-class Continental Cup in order to be promoted.
Martin Hamann was unable to secure an optimal starting position on his return to the World Cup and only managed to qualify in 44th place with 124 meters. Luca Roth, who was the second jumper in the qualification and landed at 121 meters, had to tremble for the longest time from the DSV team before his participation in the knockout duels was confirmed.
Eisenbichler has to watch
Markus Eisenbichler is not taking part in the Four Hills Tournament. The three-time world champion is still in poor form and was not nominated for the national group by national coach Horngacher.