German ski jumping festival continues
Ski jumper Andreas Wellinger continues the German podium series in Lillehammer in second place. There are also plenty of DSV eagles behind him. The outstanding Austrian Stefan Kraft is once again unbeatable. Katharina Schmid still has room for improvement.
Andreas Wellinger was shivering in the freezing cold of Lillehammer, he had to come off the bars again, but the two-time Olympic ski jumping champion kept his nerve: Wellinger celebrated his second podium finish of the winter in Norway in second place behind the once again outstanding Austrian Stefan Kraft. "Those were extremely good jumps again today, so it's fun," said the 28-year-old on ZDF television.
One week after third place in Kuusamo, Wellinger first flew to 99.0 meters on the small Olympic hill from 1994 and then to 92.0 meters in difficult wind conditions - that was enough. Austria's Daniel Tschofenig came third in double-digit sub-zero temperatures. Kraft, however, was unbeatable with flights of 104.0 and 92.5 meters. The veteran was the first jumper since his former team-mate Andreas Kofler in 2011 to win the first three jumps of a winter.
"Second behind Stefan, that's all that's possible at the moment. His jumping is outstanding," said national coach Stefan Horngacher, who was once again delighted with a first-class team result. Five-time world champion Karl Geiger just missed out on the podium in fourth place. In the first of only three normal hill competitions of the season, Pius Paschke in sixth and Stephan Leyhe in ninth also finished in the top ten.
Poland experience another day to forget
"We have an extremely strong team. It's fun, we push each other," said Wellinger. The Bavarian, Leyhe and Paschke had already finished on the podium at the brilliant start to the season in Kuusamo. After three competitions, the DSV eagles have already collected four podium places - last winter there were only eight. Philipp Raimund had to settle for 20th place this time, followed by German champion Martin Hamann in 26th.
The Poles, who are used to success, once again had a day to forget, with Pawel Wasek achieving the best result in 23rd place. On Sunday (5 pm/ZDF and Eurosport) the action continues on the neighboring large hill. Kraft can then celebrate his fourth consecutive victory - the last time this happened was in 2007.
A few hours earlier, world champion Katharina Schmid had clearly missed the podium in the women's event at the start of the season. In the first World Cup under her new name, she landed in eighth place on her favorite hill with flights of 89.5 and 91.0 meters. Japan's Yuki Ito celebrated the eighth victory of her career. "My second jump was better, even if it wasn't perfect. I definitely started better than last year," said Schmid, who won three World Championship gold medals under her maiden name Althaus in Planica in the spring. Last winter, the record-breaking world champion in Wisla only finished in 21st place at the start. The women will also continue on the big bakken on Sunday.
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Source: www.ntv.de
