Who gets off to the best start? 72nd Four Hills Tournament? This question will be asked today on Thursday, December 28th in the qualification on the Schattenbergschanze in Oberstdorf (live on Eurosport on TV).
After impressive performances and places two to four in the overall World Cup, the German ski jumpers have a strong team. Andreas Wellinger, Karl Geiger and Pius Paschke count behind the season dominator Stefan Kraft to the closest circle of favorites.
The qualification on the tour is significantly more important than that in the World Cup: the 50 qualified jumpers are divided into 25 pairs in the decision. The best in the qualification ultimately competes against the last, the second meets the second to last, etc. A slip-up in Oberstdorf could therefore be particularly expensive very early on.
Eurosport.de accompanies the Qualification in Oberstdorf at the Four Hills Tournament here live in the ticker.
Four Hills Tournament 2023/24 live in the ticker: Qualification in Oberstdorf
- 1. Clemens Aigner (AUT)
- 2. Alex Insam (ITA)
- 3. Roman Koudelka (CZE)
5:03 p.m. – Kilian Peier
Junshiro Kobayashi reached 111.5 meters with a relatively strong tailwind and qualified effortlessly. Kilian Peier does it even better. With 120.5 meters, the Swiss moved into sixth place.
5:01 p.m. – Kamil Stoch
113 meters is not Kamil Stoch’s claim, but at least it’s certainly enough. The Pole is ninth for now. The Italian Giovanni Bresadola reached 114 meters and is currently eighth.
4:58 p.m. – Simon Ammann
Simon Ammann lands at 119 meters. That’s fifth place for the Swiss. The Finn Niko Kytosaho lands at 105 meters with a very strong tailwind. At least it’s enough for quality.
4:56 p.m. – Remo Imhof and Clemens Aigner
With 119.5 meters, the Swiss Remo Imhof can safely plan for the competition. He is actually third due to some bonus points due to the tailwind. Clemens Aigner convinces with 126 meters and takes the lead!
4:54 p.m. – Artti Aigro and Alex Insam
Nice try from Artti Aigro. With 120 meters, the Estonian moved into third place. Alex Insam, who is already strong in training, is also convincing. 122.5 meters and the lead for the Italian!
4:53 p.m. – Pawel Wasek
Erik Belshaw from the USA entered the competition with 106.5 meters. 109 meters from Poland’s Pawel Wasek is also enough. For now he is seventh.
4:51 p.m. – Kasperi Valto
The tailwind at Kasperi Valto is now really strong. It promptly lands at just 103.5 meters. But because of the many bonus points, it’s enough. His compatriot Nousiainen is also through because Andrew Urlaub stayed behind him.
KO duels and lucky losers: This is how the Four Hills Tournament works
4:48 p.m. – Eetu Nousiainen
Poor attempt from Eetu Nousiainen. Only 106.5 meters for the Finn. He still has to leave one behind him. For the Italian Andrea Campregher, 109.5 meters is enough.
4:46 p.m. – Tate Frantz
A good 124 meters from Tate Frantz. This puts the American in second place and will definitely be there tomorrow. Taku Takeuchi can also at least plan for tomorrow with 115 meters.
4:44 p.m. – Roman Koudelka
Veteran Roman Koudelka has to get back from the runoff bar again. The Czech has too good a wind. Now he can do it under still good conditions. 127 meters. This is the clear leadership.
4:40 p.m. – Maciej Kot
Maciej Kot is far from his best. But 116 meters will at least be enough. He takes the lead. The Ukrainian Vitaliy Kalinichenko gets stuck at 107 meters.
4:38 p.m. – Francesco Cecon
It’s a tough affair for the current jumpers. 113.5 meters should at least be enough for the Italian Francesco Cecon. Svyatoslav Nazarenko from Kazakhstan can also at least hope with 109 meters, but he botched the landing and got bad grades.
4:34 p.m. – Benjamin Östvold
110 meters for Benjamin Östvold. Since the Norwegian had significantly worse wind than the Pole in front of him, he took the lead. Yevhen Marusiak from Ukraine moved into third place with 105 meters.
4:30 p.m. – Let’s go
The competition starts with manageable distances. Naoki Nakamura reached 104 meters, Casey Larson only 100.5. The Pole Alexander Zniszczol does it better. With 113.5 meters he takes the lead.
INFO – 58 participants
Due to the lack of national groups and because the starting quotas in the World Cup for the associations have generally been reduced, there are a manageable 58 participants at the start. That means only eight will experience tomorrow’s competition as spectators. On paper this shouldn’t be a problem for the top jumpers, but apart from the fact that the decision isn’t made on paper, it’s also about finding the easiest possible opponents for tomorrow.
INFO – The national German group
You’ve probably already noticed that there is no national group starting in Oberstdorf because they are jumping at the Conticup in Engelberg instead. The four additional starting places for Garmisch-Partenkirchen were announced there, which will most likely go to Constantin Schmid, Martin Hamann, Felix Hoffmann and Luca Roth. Because these were the best four DSV eagles in both Conticup competitions.
INFO – This is how the training went
The two training jumps have been completed and the winner twice was Ryoyu Kobayashi. In the first round he came out ahead of Andreas Wellinger by 0.1 points. Stefan Kraft came third. In the second round, Kraft and Wellinger swapped places. Karl Geiger took fourth place.
INFO – Welcome
Hello and welcome to the start of the 72nd edition of the Four Hills Tournament. The first qualification of the prestigious competition takes place on Thursday, December 28th at 4:30 p.m. The German ski jumpers around Andreas Wellinger, Pius Paschke and Karl Geiger and Co. want to get off to a good start on the Schattenbergschanze in Oberallgäu. Sebastian Würz accompanies the action on the ski jump for you live here in the ticker – have fun!
One moment outshines them all: Weißflog’s best tour memory