Austria’s super eagle Stefan Kraft sailed onto the podium at the start of the 72nd Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf; victory went to the German Andreas Wellinger. But should he have been at the start at all? FIS controller Christian Kathol says: “I would have disqualified him!”
With 25,500 spectators, the ski jumping stadium on Schattenberg in Oberstdorf was completely sold out two months before the start of the 72nd Four Hills Tournament. The euphoria in the German camp was huge; as expected, the fans turned the arena into a real madhouse yesterday. And they completely freaked out when Andreas Wellinger took home victory. After great jumps, the 28-year-old came out on top in the Allgäu, 3.0 points ahead of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi. The Austrian Adlerhorst was also happy. The figurehead Stefan Kraft sailed to third place with jumps of 132.5 and 125 meters and secured the first red-white-red podium place in Oberstdorf since 2018. Not surprisingly: Kraft was responsible for this five years ago. “That was a great one Prelude. “I’m glad I’m on the podium,” Kraft breathed a sigh of relief and admitted: “I was a little late at the jump table in the second round.” With his 106th podium finish, he took another step closer to Janne Ahonen’s all-time record (108). closer. At the same time, the Salzburg winner of the day congratulated Wellinger fairly: “I’m happy for Andi! Hats off to him for pulling it off,” said the 30-year-old high flyer. FIS inspector Kathol: “Would have disqualified him.” In terms of sport, the German was clearly the best on the day of the competition and was celebrated for it. But should he have even been allowed to take part? This question was asked by the Norwegian broadcaster “nrk”, which revealed with photo evidence that Wellinger was wearing a defective suit after qualifying, which he won with a jump of 135 meters. The victory earned him a bonus of 3,000 euros. However, the suit had a hole under the right armpit, which meant that it did not comply with the rules. TV images prove that the hole was caused by Wellinger’s celebration. “If he had been with me and I had seen the suit, he would have been disqualified,” explained FIS equipment controller Christian Kathol when asked by “nrk”. Since this was not the case and no association protested, the 28-year-old Bavarian was able to compete on Friday and impressively win the opening competition of the ski jump highlight.
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