Ski Jumping World Cup in Willingen
Wellinger flies in the rain to the celebrated home victory
February 4, 2024, 6:39 p.m
First Andreas Wellinger has to get down from the beam again, then he can start driving – and jumps very, very far. The top German jumper wins the home World Cup in Willingen. A Slovenian shows the longest flight of the day.
Ski jumper Andreas Wellinger celebrated his second win of the season at the home World Cup in Willingen after a strong comeback. In the constant rain in Hesse, the 28-year-old flew at 139.0 and 149.0 meters and, like in 2017, won on the Mühlenkopfschanze. After the first round, the runner-up in the Four Hills Tournament was still in seventh place.
“That’s unbelievable. It was really a lot of rain today. A lot of rain,” said the completely soaked Bavarian: “The second jump was really good. I didn’t think until the end that it would be enough to win.” The rest was jubilation. “Thanks to everyone who waited so long in this shitty weather and cheered us on.”
Since the constant rain affected the inrun track at the Mühlenkopfschanze and the wind kept changing, the staging of the second round was even in jeopardy. Wellinger, who had already won the home game in Oberstdorf, relegated tour winner Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan to second place in adverse conditions. The Swiss Gregor Deschwanden came third. The Pole Aleksander Zniszczol, who was surprisingly in the lead after the first round, fell back to eighth place.
Leyhe comes eleventh, Geiger is out again in the first round
After no German jumper was able to place in the top ten on Saturday, Wellinger had to come off the beam twice before his final jump because of the wind. But he kept his nerve and made up six places with a long jump.
The second best German was Stephan Leyhe in eleventh place. Yesterday, Saturday, the local hero, who celebrated his only World Cup victory to date in his homeland in 2020, achieved the best result for the disappointing DSV Adler in 15th place. Pius Paschke (25th) and Philipp Raimund (26th) also made it into the points. The former Willingen winner Karl Geiger and Felix Hoffmann missed the second round twice.
The Austrian Stefan Kraft, who is leading in the overall World Cup and who surprisingly missed the second round on Saturday in 39th place, came sixth this time. The Norwegian Johann Andre Forfang, who had increased the hill record to 155.0 meters with his victory the day before, had to be content with 14th place. The Slovenian Timi Zajc showed the longest jump of the day with 153 meters. Last year he fell 161.5 meters after landing in the same place after a flight.