The German ski jumpers thrilled the fans at the start of the tour in Oberstdorf: Andreas Wellinger won ahead of Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan and Stefan Kraft from Austria.
Wellinger was already in the lead after the first round, and as the last starter in the final he withstood the immense pressure in an outstanding manner. His set of 128 meters wasn’t the longest, but due to the difficult conditions and the outstanding poise scores, it was enough to win in the end with a three-point lead over Kobayashi. Behind Kraft, the Slovenian Lovro Kos flew into fourth place, while two other Germans landed in the top ten.
Wellinger then celebrated his triumph in the Sportschau interview: “Winning here in front of so many fans can’t be described in words. It just makes me extremely proud after the last few years, it’s definitely one of the greatest moments I’ve experienced.”
Geiger falls back to seventh place
Karl Geiger was also aiming for the podium in fourth place after the first round, but nothing worked out for him in the second round: he landed at 122 meters and in the end he had to settle for seventh place.
Top performance from Philipp Raimund
Philipp Raimund delivered a great competition. In the second round he landed at 135 meters and jumped from tenth place to sixth place. In the first he was happy: “Simply mega. To achieve my best career result here, of all places, it couldn’t be better.”
Pius Paschke went into the final in ninth place and struggled a little with the lack of momentum, but in the end he was quite happy with eleventh place.
Leyhe messes up the second jump
Stefan Leyhe had to struggle with a tailwind on his two jumps, and since the Obersdorf ski jump was never particularly suitable for him anyway, he couldn’t compensate for that well. After finishing 15th in the first round, he fell at 119 meters in the second round and ended up finishing in 24th place.
Ammann inspires – at 42 years old
The Swiss legend Simon Ammann delivered an impressive performance to the delight of fans in Obersdorf. At the almost biblical age of 42 for a ski jumper, after 119 meters in the first round, he managed a leap to 134.5 meters in the final in significantly better conditions – and cheered like he was in his very best days.
Clear statement in the first round
In the first round, all five Germans won their direct duels and were among the top 15. Andreas Wellinger celebrated the farthest set with 139.5 meters, putting him ahead of Kobayashi, Kraft and Geiger.
National coach Stefan Horngacher described Wellinger’s first round as “flawless”he saw in the others “There are still a few things to improve.” At this point, Pius Paschke was in ninth place, directly followed by Philipp Raimund, Stephan Leyhe was 15th after the first jump.
Poland still in collective crisis
With a view to the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (2 p.m., live on Erste and in the live ticker at sportschau.de) as well as the two events in Innsbruck (January 3rd) and Bischofshofen (January 6th), there is still a lot more to be improved However, other nations have it. So the mysterious collective crisis in the ski jumping nation Poland continued seamlessly in Oberstdorf. Jumpers who have been established for years, like Dawid Kubacki and Piotr Zyla, jumped to distances of 112 and 113 meters that were ridiculous by their standards in the first round, but at least they still won their direct duels.
The three-time tour champion Kamil Stoch was not granted this with his also very meager 117 meters. Stoch was clearly defeated by the Slovenian Lovro Kos and, like all his compatriots, had no chance of reaching the top of the tour rankings after just one jump.
Granerud is also at the end
The overall winner from the previous season was back in touch with the ground even faster than the Polish trio. The Norwegian star jumper Halvor Egner Granerud landed at an incredible 105 meters and therefore had no chance of making it to the second round due to the lucky loser rule.
But strong from Granerud: When the jury interrupted the jumping for several minutes due to the persistent tailwind, he went to the spectators and handed out autograph cards despite his heavy defeat.