With a true ski jumping gala, Andreas Wellinger impressively fueled hopes of the first German Four Hills Tournament victory since Sven Hannawald’s triumph in 2002. The 28-year-old prevailed on Friday in Oberstdorf ahead of second-placed Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi and Stefan Kraft from Austria. Wellinger jumped a formidable distance of 139.5 and 128 meters in front of 25,500 enthusiastic spectators in the Arena am Schattenberg.
“Amazing!” Hannawald euphorically commented on Wellinger’s first jump on ARD. National coach Stefan Horngacher was also enthusiastic. “Flawless,” he said. “Hats off to him, he did really, really well.” Youngster Philipp Raimund also showed a good performance and came sixth. Local hero Karl Geiger was unlucky with the conditions in the second round and ended up in seventh place at halftime after fourth place.
But the big stage belonged to Wellinger. The Bavarian had never won a competition on the tour before. Overall, he celebrated the sixth individual World Cup victory of his career. Geiger achieved the last German daily success at the ski jump spectacle in four acts in 2020 – also in Oberstdorf.
Wellinger has achieved what many no longer really believed he could do: after difficult years marked by injuries, he is once again the model athlete for the German team. The fun-loving spirit of fun sports is constantly jumping more strongly this winter than it has in a long time. In eight World Cups before the tour, Wellinger reached the podium four times. Only once did the 2018 Olympic champion fail to make it into the top five jumpers.
The start of the tour put the whole of Oberstdorf in a state of emergency. In the morning, fans with Germany hats and flags paraded through the streets of the otherwise tranquil health resort, which is usually home to around 10,000 people. Even without snow, ski jumping fans celebrated a big winter party.
Five hours before the start of the competition, the first fans secured the best seats in the sold-out arena with 25,500 spectators. They cheered on the jumpers with loud shouts of “Ziehhh”. They shouted the names of their heroes loudly. “That’s a full alarm,” Hannawald commented enthusiastically on the atmosphere.
The Austrian Kraft started the competition as the top favorite in the fight for the prestigious Golden Eagle. The 30-year-old, who won the tour once in 2015, is confidently leading the overall World Cup. He won five of eight competitions before the tour – including at the tour dress rehearsal in Engelberg, Switzerland. With third place at the start, he is still fully in the race.
Other top stars in the scene cannot say the same. The Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud and the two Poles Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch, who won the tour in previous years, no longer have a realistic chance of winning. Defending champion Granerud was eliminated in the first round after jumping just 105.5 meters.
A German jumper was spared this. From the Horngacher team, Pius Paschke in eleventh place and Stephan Leyhe in 24th place also scored World Cup points.
Note: This article has been updated since it was first published.
