Halvor Egner Granerud also won the second competition of the Four Hills Tournament. Andreas Wellinger was the best German when he won on Sunday (January 1st, 2023) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The 27-year-old Wellinger presented himself as in Oberstdorf, when he was sixth, also in the New Year’s competition and finished eighth with distances of 137 and 133 meters.
The German hope for victory Karl Geiger was able to improve after his weak performance in the qualification (119 meters), but said goodbye to the group of favorites.
With 131.5 meters he went into the second round in tenth place, with 131 meters he even fell out of the top 10 and finished eleventh. In the overall standings, Wellinger is only 0.2 points behind Geiger. “I didn’t quite manage to make the jump really good. That’s a pity, but it wasn’t the case that progress was always made in the past few weeks. I can be happy with eleventh place‘ Geiger said.
Granerud the ultimate
Oberstdorf winner Halvor Egner Granerud was again the outstanding man and had the highest number of points in both rounds. With 140 and 142 meters, the Norwegian confirmed his role as favorite for overall victory and extended his lead. Second was Anze Lanisek (140.5 and 137 meters), 6.4 points behind, qualification winner Dawid Kubacki (136 and 138.5 meters) was third.
“Actually, I expected more. It’s impressive how the others sail down here. Respect and congratulations to the jumpers, for us it means: keep going. In Innsbruck we will try to get back up front“said national coach Stefan Horngacher. “As it looks now, there will be no German winner again, a miracle would have to happen. But it was already clear in advance that it would be difficult for us. We have to see that we can move forward step by step. The real breakthrough is still missing.“
Raimund and Schmid can improve
Philipp Raimund confirmed the strong impressions from the first days of the Four Hills Tournament again. Due to problematic wind conditions, he only managed 125.5 meters in the first jump, but then he landed at a strong 135 meters – 15th place. In the second attempt he overtook Stephan Leyhe, among others, who was 17th after 128 and 130 meters.
“It feels really cool, I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve gained a lot of self-confidence and can be very satisfied with my system, my jumps run like clockwork‘ said Raymond.
Like Raimund, Constantin Schmid was unlucky with the conditions in the first round and only jumped 121 meters. In the second attempt he was also able to show his class, flew 133 meters and worked his way up from 29th to 23rd place. Pius Paschke (124.5 and 127.5 meters) finished in 24th place, Felix Hofmann was 28th with jumps of 121 and 128 meters.
Next setback for Eisenbichler
For three DSV athletes, the competition was already over after the first round. Martin Hamann (122.5 meters) and Luca Roth (113 meters), who made it into the New Year’s competition alongside Hoffmann from the national group, lost their duels and were eliminated, as was Markus Eisenbichler (124 meters). After his poor performance in Oberstdorf, the three-time world champion had the next disappointment, losing to his teammate Paschke.
“It was difficult up there, so in the end I collapsed. But otherwise I showed good jumps here in Garmisch and I will simply continue in Innsbruck“said Eisenbichler. “I’m just not stable enough to make top jumps in difficult conditions. I have to work this out again.“