Four Hills Tournament - Missed out on podium in Innsbruck: Wellinger loses lead, but still has a chance of overall victory
Andreas Wellinger has also mastered the infamous Bergisel and kept alive hopes of the first German Four Hills Tournament victory since Sven Hannawald in 2002. The 28-year-old narrowly lost his overall lead to Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi on Wednesday. However, with a gap of only around 2.5 meters, he has the best chance of a big triumph in the grand final in Bischofshofen on Saturday. Wellinger and Kobayashi will in all likelihood fight it out for the golden eagle.
"I'm really extremely happy with my jumping performance," said Wellinger on ZDF. Local hero Jan Hörl secured victory at the first Austrian stop of the ski jumping spectacle.
The qualification was a damper
Kobayashi and Wellinger are more consistent, however. The Bavarian, who has a wide range of sporting interests and likes to travel and swap his jumping skis for a surfboard on vacation, won in Oberstdorf at the start. He narrowly defended his top position with third place in the New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
His 15th place in qualifying for the third stage of the tour on Tuesday was a bit of a dampener. The trial round didn't go perfectly for Wellinger either. However, he didn't let this show in the competition. When Wellinger warmed up under the jump shortly before the start, he already seemed to be completely in the tunnel. "If you've known him for a while, you know that he was born for situations like this," said Stephan Leyhe about the pressure on his roommate.
"Welli Fliag" was written on a black, red and gold flag with an eagle on it, which was hung on the fence at the 130-meter mark. After his first jump of 132 meters, the numerous German fans sang "Oh, how beautiful it is".
National coach Stefan Horngacher was not quite as enthusiastic, but also satisfied. "The jump was okay. It wasn't quite perfect, but it was good," said the 54-year-old. "He's fully on board. That fits."
The second round was a wind lottery
In the second round, Wellinger followed up with an attempt at 126.5 meters. "We knew that it would be a bit of a wind lottery. I wasn't the luckiest in the second round," he said.
In glorious sunshine, 21,000 spectators celebrated a big ski jumping party in the stadium cauldron on the mountain above Innsbruck's city center. La Ola spilled over the stands, a DJ fired up the crowd with party hits by Abba and the Höhnern. The atmosphere in the arena with a view of the snow-covered Nordkette has not been this good for a long time. Even a break of several minutes due to difficult conditions did not dampen the fans' spirits.
Until now, the Bergisel was regarded as the Germans' fateful hill. In recent years, Richard Freitag, Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler, among others, have lost their chances of making the tour on the hill, which is prone to wind due to its exposed location. That didn't happen to Wellinger.
However, his rival Kobayashi, who jumped into second place on Wednesday, is an absolute tour pro. The 27-year-old has already secured overall victory in 2019 and 2022. In his first success, he won all four jumps, as only Hannawald and Poland's Kamil Stoch had done before.
It continues on Friday
From the German team, Leyhe finished 18th behind Wellinger, Philipp Raimund in 20th place and Geiger in 26th place among the best 30 athletes. Pius Paschke, on the other hand, was surprisingly eliminated after the first round.
After a rest day, the jumpers will continue with the qualification in Bischofshofen on Friday (16:30/ARD and Eurosport). The decisive competition will then traditionally take place on Epiphany. "I really like Bischofshofen. I hope that the conditions will play along again and then two and a half meters will be nothing on the big hill," said Wellinger.
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Source: www.stern.de
