From a German point of view, the Four Hills Tournament begins promisingly before New Year’s Eve, but the sobering set in during the second competition. Well, at the third station, there’s a disaster. At the top, two skippers deliver a spectacular duel.
Dawid Kubacki won the third competition of the 71st Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck. The Pole prevailed on the Bergiselschanze in front of the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud, who was the leader in the tournament, and the Slovenian Anze Lanisek. This brought Kubacki a little closer to Granerud in the overall standings. The German ski jumpers had a weak day. As the best from the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher, 22-year-old Philipp Raimund took 13th place. Andreas Wellinger ended up in 18th place.
Before the last competition next Friday in Bischofshofen, Wellinger lost his good starting position in the overall standings: the two-time Olympic champion traveled to Innsbruck in sixth place and has to fight for a place in the top 10 in the tournament final. Most recently, in 2011, no German jumper made it into the top ten in the overall ranking, before that the German offer, led by Jens Weißflog at the time, failed to reach the top ranks.
Team World Champion Karl Geiger was surprisingly eliminated in the qualification the day before. The 29-year-old followed the jumping from the team hotel. In a video message he addressed his fans. “It’s extremely sad and bitter, but I won’t give up,” said Geiger in the report that was broadcast on ARD during the first round.
