The winning photo of Andreas Wellinger, who was already beaming again, looked like a family picture. First place for the Olympic champion from Bavaria, places three to six for Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler, Philipp Raimund and Constantin Schmid.
Will ski jumping suddenly become a German domain immediately before the World Championships, where triple successes can be expected from now on, analogous to bobsleigh or tobogganing?
Not quite. Because while the rest of the world elite around Norway’s dominator Halvor Egner Granerud or Austria’s Stefan Kraft paused before the title fights in Planica, the Germans traveled to Rasnov in Romania – and cleaned up unrivaled on both days.
“Nobody dared to come here before the World Cup, we did. We had good experiences two years ago,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher as justification – at the home World Cup in 2021 in Oberstdorf there was a medal in every competition, including Team and mixed gold.
Wellinger and Geiger win super team competition
In Romania on Saturday there was a German ski jumping festival without great sporting value, where even the first triple success since December 1990 was only missed because of the Slovenian Ziga Jelar (second place on the day). Horngacher praised the positive shape of his athletes and saw “a good competition”. That’s how it went on Sunday, when Wellinger and Geiger clearly won the new super team competition. “We won the thing comfortably, that was also necessary,” said Horngacher.
The first week of the World Championships in the picturesque valley in Slovenia will now show which trick has prevailed: the competition break with less travel stress or the German way, which relies on the dress rehearsal on a normal hill and additional self-confidence through good results.
Wellinger as a German hope
For the day’s winner, Wellinger, who ended a long lull in Lake Placid last week, the answer is already clear. “I would say that we did everything right.”
In fact, the 27-year-old Bavarian will be the great hope for the World Cup days in Planica. In the exuberance of his next World Cup success, he even slowed down the German ski jumping legend Sven Hannawald. “Sven, don’t talk so much,” said the Olympic champion, beaming with joy when he came to the ARD microphone and was allowed to explain another coup.
Head coach Horngacher isn’t afraid to impose high expectations on Wellinger. “I have the feeling that he has taken the lead in the team. He is currently our most promising athlete,” said the Tyrolean coach.
Wellinger himself is also satisfied with his development. “It feels pretty awesome. It’s really unfamiliar. Confidence is what’s saving me right now. It feels incredibly good to jump back to the top,” he said, who wants to be more than a challenger at the World Cup by Granerud and Kraft. His declared goal: the medals, preferably directly in the individual.
The fact that the competition stayed away in Rasnov also had a positive effect for the ski jumpers. “It’s good for us, we can score a bunch of World Cup points. Of course you’d like to compete with the best. But if you’re not there, you can’t be measured. So it’s your own fault,” said Eisenbichler. Wellinger even allowed himself some criticism: “It sucks for the organizer if nobody is there.”
