Podium finish in Lahti
Wellinger takes advantage of a serious power mistake in second place
March 1, 2024, 7:26 p.m
The chance of triumphing in the overall World Cup no longer seems all that great – but Andreas Wellinger is doing everything he can to preserve it. In Lahti he jumps to second place, while leader Stefan Kraft misses the top 30.
Olympic ski jumping champion Andreas Wellinger flew onto the podium in Lahti, Finland and preserved his small chance of winning the overall World Cup. The 28-year-old from Ruhpolding only had to admit defeat to the Slovenian Lovro Kos in second place on the Salpausselkä ski jump. It was Wellinger’s eleventh podium finish this winter.
In difficult wind conditions, Wellinger jumped up from fourth place in the second round. After jumps of 129.5 and 126.5 meters (257.1 points), Wellinger was three meters behind Kos (262.5/127+134.0), who celebrated his second World Cup victory. Japan’s tour winner Ryoyu Kobayashi came third (254.9). “The second jump in particular was extremely good,” said Wellinger on ZDF.
There could be a little more excitement in the fight for the overall World Cup. Leader Stefan Kraft (Austria) was eliminated in 49th place after a completely unsuccessful jump after the first round. With nine remaining, Kraft leads with 1,546 points ahead of Kobayashi (1,337) and Wellinger (1,258), and there are 100 points for a win.
The second best German in the catch-up jumping for the competition in Szczyrk, Poland, which was canceled in January, was Stephan Leyhe in eleventh place, Pius Paschke came in twelfth ahead of Constantin Schmid (21st), who returned to the German World Cup team after strong performances in the Continental Cup. Philipp Raimund had to make do with 23rd place, five-time world champion Karl Geiger once again fell short of his potential and only came 27th.
Old champion Noriaki Kasai, who had fought his way back into the Japanese A team, competed in his first World Cup competition in Europe in five years, but was eliminated in 38th place after the first round of his 572nd World Cup competition. The 51-year-old made his World Cup debut in Lahti in 1989. “I’m overjoyed to be able to be there again at 51. This is the best thing that could have happened to me,” he had previously told ZDF.