Andreas Wellinger won the opening competition of the 72nd Four Hills Tournament and gave the German ski jumpers a dream start. In front of 25,500 spectators in Oberstdorf, the two-time Olympic champion prevailed ahead of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi and Stefan Kraft from Austria.
It was the 23rd German victory since the tour premiered at Schattenberg in 1953. The former tour runner-up Wellinger, who had to struggle for a long time with the consequences of his cruciate ligament tear in 2019 and failed to qualify in Oberstdorf two years ago, flew on Friday at 139.5 m and 128 m, with 309.3 points ahead of Kobayashi (306.3) and Kraft (298.9).
Local hero Karl Geiger landed in seventh place (285.4), directly behind his Oberstdorf club colleague Philipp Raimund (286.0). Pius Paschke (Kiefersfelden/280.9), who became the oldest German World Cup winner in history at the age of 33 with his victory at the tour dress rehearsal in Engelberg, took eleventh place. Stephan Leyhe (Willingen/260.1)) came in 24th place.