In the qualification, the German Olympic champion’s jumps were mixed: with 128 meters (144.3 points), Wellinger only came in ninth. After training distances of 128 and 138 meters, things went back a bit in the qualifying round.
“That wasn’t the best jump. The idea was right, but I just completely missed the take-off table,” he said Eurosport. He should “perhaps stop by IKEA and get a longer table,” joked the Oberstdorf winner on “ARD”.
Kobayashi won the qualification with 138 meters (162.6) ahead of overall World Cup leader Stefan Kraft (134 m/154.8) and Clemens Aigner (both Austria/134.5 m/153.0). Local hero Hörl, who comes from Bischofshofen, came in eighth place directly ahead of Wellinger (129 m/145.5).
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Bischofshofen | qualification
Paschke second best German
Engelberg winner Pius Paschke, who was eliminated in Innsbruck, qualified for the competition in 14th place as the second best German with 127.5 m (141.6). “The qualifying jump was the best, but overall it was mixed,” said the Kiefersfelden native.
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The eleventh-placed Philipp Raimund showed a weak jump (122 m) and is only 40th in the final competition of the Four Hills Tournament. “I don’t really like the mountain, something always feels wrong,” he said Eurosport about his problems with the inrun lane.
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Stephan Leyhe did better on his 32nd birthday: The Willingen native landed at 128.5 meters (139.5) and thus came 18th. “The jump was okay so far, solid,” he said.
In contrast to training, Klingenthal winner Karl Geiger (Oberstdorf), who goes into the race one place ahead of Leyhe with 129.5 meters (139.8), showed improvement. “It was okay. The trend is going in the right direction,” he said Eurosport.
Östvold surprised
The 22-year-old Benjamin Östvold jumped 138.5 meters with start number four and led the competition for 31 start numbers (7th/150.8).
Only Aigner, tenth in the overall ranking, trumped the young Norwegian and stayed in the top three until the end.
The best distance was shown by former tour winner Peter Prevc with 140 meters (6th/147.8), who jumped from two hatches higher than the top people (14 vs. 12).
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Wellinger with good memories of Bischofshofen
Wellinger knows the ski jump in Bischofshofen like the back of his hand, trained there as a teenager, lives nearby and, according to himself, “loves it”.
In 2017 he won the qualification there and increased the hill record to 144.5 m (before Dawid Kubacki improved it to 145.0 m in 2019). In 2018 he finished third on the podium.
The last German to win in Bischofshofen was Sven Hannawald in 2002, who was the first ski jumper to triumph in all four tournament competitions and is still the last German tour winner to this day.
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Wellinger would be the eleventh German tour winner
Wellinger would be the 52nd winner overall and the eleventh German in the 72nd edition of the Four Hills Tournament.
Kobayashi won on the Paul-Außerleitner-Schanze in 2019 and 2022 and secured the coveted Golden Eagle twice. In 2024, the 27-year-old can theoretically become the ninth ski jumper overall to win the tour without winning a day. The Japanese came second in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck.