Felix Hoffmann secured the first podium finish for German ski jumpers in the Olympic winter. The 28-year-old landed on the podium for the first time in his career in third place in Lillehammer, Norway.
Philipp Raimund also shone in the victory of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi ahead of world champion Domen Prevc (Slovenia), who recorded the second-best World Cup result of his career in fourth place.
The German champion Hoffmann only recorded the best result of his career on Saturday in tenth place, and 24 hours later he clearly topped this again. After the first jump at 139.0 m, the Thuringian was still in fourth place, but with a second jump at 138.0 m he passed Raimund.
From a German perspective, however, there was a gap. Unlike on Saturday, Karl Geiger (23rd) and last year’s winner Pius Paschke (27th) made it into the points. The two-time Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger, however, came away empty-handed again in 40th place.
Kobayashi was unbeatable on Sunday with flights of 138.0 and 139.5 m. On Saturday, Daniel Tschofenig, Jan Hörl and Stefan Kraft ensured an Austrian triple victory.
In the women’s category, Katharina Schmid narrowly missed the podium in fourth place on Sunday; 24 hours earlier, the record world champion had already finished sixth. These were the only top ten places of the weekend for the DSV women. The first victories of her career were won by the Japanese Nozomi Maruyama by a large margin.