Led by Andreas Wellinger, the German ski jumpers won team bronze at the Ski Flying World Championships. Gold went to Slovenia ahead of Austria.
Led by Andreas Wellinger, the German ski jumpers won bronze in the team competition at the end of the Ski Flying World Championships on Kulm. Wellinger, Stephan Leyhe, Karl Geiger and Pius Paschke achieved 1549.9 points after two rounds. Gold went to defending champion Slovenia (1615.4) ahead of hosts Austria (1588.9) and the new world champion Stefan Kraft.
Wellinger had already won silver in the individual on Saturday, and on Sunday he secured third place as the final jumper. After the first round, the DSV quartet was in third place, but it was not enough to win the hoped-for first German gold medal in World Cup history. Slovenia with Timi Zajc, the brothers Domen and Peter Prevc and Lovro Kos could not be beaten.
Gold possible: Then Leyhe makes a mistake
Gold initially seemed possible: starting jumper Paschke put Germany in the lead with a strong flight to 229.5 m, which Geiger (224.5) successfully defended. “The beginning was great,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher. Because Leyhe (198.5) made a mistake, the German team fell back to third place; Wellinger (219.5) couldn’t change that.
“After 80 or 100 m I had the feeling that I was sagging, I started to swing at the bottom,” said Wellinger. In the second round, neither Paschke (211.5), Geiger (207.0), Leyhe (164.5) and Wellinger (229.5) changed anything about third place.
Norway (1502.9 points) was already well behind in fourth place. Meanwhile, the disappointing season continued for Poland, who finished third in the World Cup twice: Aleksander Zniszczol was disqualified in the second round because of a suit that didn’t conform to the rules, and in the final results he only managed seventh place.