Lanisek wins New Year’s competition
Strong Wellinger narrowly defends tour lead
January 1, 2024, 4:18 p.m
Andreas Wellinger cannot repeat his triumph in the opening competition of the Four Hills Tournament, but also delivers a strong performance in the New Year’s competition. The German narrowly defends his overall lead and clearly distances himself from a major competitor.
Ski jumping star Andreas Wellinger has kept alive his hopes of Germany’s first overall Four Hills Tournament victory since Sven Hannawald in 2002. The 28-year-old Olympic champion took third place on the Great Olympic Ski Jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen after jumping 138 and 137.5 meters. He remains the leader in the overall standings.
The prestigious event is increasingly shaping up to be a duel between Wellinger and the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi. Kobayashi came second in the patience game, which was also influenced by the wind, in front of 21,000 spectators – a record for New Year’s dancing according to the organizers – and is now 1.8 points – or the equivalent of one meter – behind Wellinger. The winner of the day was Anze Lanisek (136 and 137 meters) from Slovenia.
“Andi Wellinger jumped really well today and landed really well, that was the most important thing. He solved it really well. The jumps were at a very high level. I’m very happy with third place,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF. Wellinger said: “I managed to do two good jumps again. The second one was a little better. I thought it would go a little further.” There hasn’t been a German victory at the start of the year since Hannawald 22 years ago.
Co-favorite loses a lot of points
Unlike in Oberstdorf, when Wellinger won ahead of Kobayashi and the Austrian Stefan Kraft, this time it was very close. After one round, the four best athletes were just over a meter apart. Top favorite Kraft didn’t have to accept a heavy defeat in Garmisch this time like in previous years, but after finishing sixth, they lost further important points in the fight for the title.
The qualification in Innsbruck continues on Tuesday (1.30 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport and in the live ticker on ntv.de). It is the feared Bergiselschanze that has repeatedly brought Germany’s eagles heavy defeats in recent years and has often marked the end in the fight for the golden eagle.
The enthusiasm for ski jumping, fueled by Wellinger’s opening success, was clearly visible at the start of the new year. “A victory like this in Oberstdorf is something very special. You have to let your emotions come out a little bit. You have to make sure that you slow down a little bit. You need energy every day,” said TV expert Severin Freund, himself a winner in December 2015 in Allgäu, on the ZDF microphone. And the crowd favorite did everything as usual.
Geiger wants to remain humble
Supported by great flight qualities and noticeably high approach speeds, the Ruhpoldinger is currently one of the elite in every single jump. Wellinger put the confusion surrounding his torn suit and the landing errors on New Year’s Eve behind him and showed another impressive performance. “This is one of the greatest things you can experience as a ski jumper,” said Freund, referring to the setting and significance of jumping on New Year’s Day. Champion Granerud has no chance again
Behind Wellinger – as in Oberstdorf – no other German could really compete for the podium places. Pius Paschke (10th) did well, but the world’s best is a long way away for the rest of the team behind Wellinger. This also applies to Karl Geiger, who celebrated two victories in Klingenthal a good three weeks ago.
“You have to stay humble and patient,” said the 30-year-old from Allgäu, who only finished 16th after 129 and 130 meters. Co-favorite Geiger has already said goodbye to the fight for overall victory after the two German stations. Defending champion Halvor Egner Granerud from Norway once again had no chance and didn’t even make it into the second round.