Top favorite Domen Prevc won the opening competition of the 74th Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf by a frighteningly large margin. Felix Hoffmann made it onto the podium.
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) initially finished in second place with equal points. But suddenly Felix Hoffmann showed up at the award ceremony because Zajc was subsequently disqualified because his suit was too big.
Hoffmann suddenly at the award ceremony
The German hopefuls have delivered. Felix Hoffmann was able to repeat his performance from the last World Cup in Engelberg: with 132.5 and 136 meters he came in third place.
The Slovenian’s disqualification was only announced shortly before the award ceremony. Accordingly, Hoffmann looked around in disbelief. “I was happy with fourth place, especially with the jumps. I was just giving interviews when Ralf suddenly came (Press spokesman Eder, note d. Red.) ran over and said that there was probably a disqualification and I had to go to the award ceremonye,” said the 28-year-old in the Sportschau interview.
Besides Hoffmann, only Raimund can keep up with the best
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 fifth place on jumps of 136 and 133 meters. “There is still room for improvement – but not by force,” said Raymond.
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.