DSV eagles jump behind
Wellinger suffers the first setback in wind qualifying
January 2, 2024, 3:12 p.m
Bitter start to Austria for Andreas Wellinger and Co.: In the qualification in Innsbruck, the German ski jumpers experienced their first big disappointment in the Four Hills Tournament. The overall leader Wellinger has to start surprisingly early in the third jump on Wednesday.
Olympic ski jumping champion Andreas Wellinger suffered a first setback during the qualification in Innsbruck. The overall leader of the Four Hills Tournament did not exceed 119.5 meters and took 15th place. Rival Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan (129 meters) came third in the preliminary round. The qualifying points do not count for the ranking, in which Wellinger is currently 1.8 points (the equivalent of one meter) ahead of Kobayashi.
The day’s victory in the qualification in front of 7,500 spectators at Bergisel went to the Slovenian Anze Lanisek (134 meters), who had already won the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen the day before. Top favorite Stefan Kraft from Austria is already almost 15 meters behind the leading duo, but impressed with a jump of 124.5 meters in the qualification, which was influenced by the changing wind. The 30-year-old took second place on the day. Kraft needs to catch up at the stations in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen.
The other German jumpers also had nothing to do with the front ranks. Behind Wellinger, Philipp Raimund (20th), Stephan Leyhe (30th), Karl Geiger (33rd) and Pius Paschke (35th) also performed significantly worse than expected. On Wednesday (1.30 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport as well as in the live ticker at ntv.de) The third competition of the traditional event is coming up in Tyrol. The final will then take place on January 6th in Bischofshofen. Wellinger and Lanisek won the first two competitions.