Wellinger averts setback
“Flying Mustache” debuts on the podium
February 11, 2024, 10:11 p.m
Ski jumper Philipp Raimund caused a big surprise with second place at the World Cup in Lake Placid. Only World Cup leader Stefan Kraft was better. Andreas Wellinger was also able to avert a setback in the second round. Now we’re off to Japan.
Philipp Raimund jumped through the snow of Lake Placid with wild enthusiasm and could hardly be caught. The extroverted Oberstdorfer celebrated his first podium place in the ski jumping World Cup like a world title: With his surprising second place at the end of the stressful North America trip, Raimund is himself an Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger was overshadowed – only Austria’s top star Stefan Kraft prevented a German sensational victory.
“Second place last night in the Super Team with Andi gave me a lot of impetus,” said Raimund, who flew from fourth place at half-time to the podium in the third competition within 26 hours with a second dream flight at 135.0 m – a Fifth place last year in Rasnov was the best result so far for the passionate mustache wearer.
With 278.4 points, Raimund was less than two meters short of Kraft (281.6) and a surprise win. Together with Raimund, Lovro Kos from Slovenia, who had tied for the previous day, also came second. “Philip was really strong, especially the second jump. With this result we can go on to Japan satisfied,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher about the “flying mustache” from Allgäu, who only came 16th in the first individual on Saturday .
Geiger and Paschke fail in the first round
With a strong second jump, Wellinger moved up from 16th place to sixth and thus avoided a painful setback in the fight for the overall World Cup. With his seventh win of the season, Kraft extended his lead in the World Cup standings.
Nothing went together on Sunday for Karl Geiger, who missed the second round in 37th place on his 31st birthday, just like Engelberg winner Pius Paschke (35th). “The jump wasn’t good. That’s bitter, I changed my mind,” said the five-time world champion.
Geiger, Raimund and Wellinger then had many hours of flying time to analyze the competition: After the 6,000 km journey from Willingen to New York, the next of the 14 (!) individual competitions until the end of the season will take place next weekend at around 10,000 km from Lake Placid took place in distant Sapporo. From there it’s almost 9,000 km to ski flying to Oberstdorf. Ski jumping as hard work.
In the super team, Austria wins by eleven centimeters
Wellinger had just had to do this in Lake Placid on Saturday. In the morning he was not satisfied after his seventh place in the first individual competition. “The jumps were neither with much ease nor with the right rhythm, I can do that better,” he said. Because Kraft, who was leading at halftime, slipped to 24th place due to bad wind, Wellinger made up points.
On Saturday evening, Wellinger put a lot of pressure on himself in the strenuous super team competition over three rounds with a brilliant final jump of 128.0 m. He countered with a precise landing: Ultimately, Wellinger and Raimund were second after six jumps and over 700 meters in the air, a tiny eleven centimeters behind Austria.