No DSV eagle among the top ten, Karl Geiger not even in the final: The German ski jumpers revealed some catching up to do at the earliest World Cup start in history and clearly missed the podium on the mat facility in Wisla, Poland. When local hero Dawid Kubacki won in windy, rainy weather, veteran Pius Paschke (Kiefersfelden) was surprisingly the best DSV starter in twelfth place. Youngster Constantin Schmid (Oberaudorf) was sixth after the first round and within striking distance of the podium, but then fell back to 16th place.
Paschke, who beat Stephan Leyhe in an internal duel for sixth place in the German team, was just ahead of Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf). The six-time world champion could be satisfied with 13th place after injuries and motivation problems in the summer. The two-time Olympic bronze medalist Geiger, who was second overall in the World Cup last year, showed a weak jump of 115.0 m in the first round, being 34th and about a meter short of the second round.
Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal on the green field.
(Photo: KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS)
Former Tournament winner Kubacki celebrated his sixth World Cup victory, with jumps of 130.5 and 132.5 m (272.2 points) ahead of Norway’s top star Halvor Egner Granerud (266.6) and Austria’s world champion Stefan Kraft (2574.5) prevailed. Defending World Cup champion Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan) finished seventh. Olympic champion Marius Lindvik (Norway) fell in the second round with a clear best day of 136.5 m. He remained uninjured, but dropped back to 22nd place.
The German champion Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding), who only just slipped into the final in 30th place, improved to 23rd place in the second round. In January 2014, the 27-year-old celebrated his first World Cup victory in Wisla. Philipp Raimund (both Oberstdorf) dropped out in his first World Cup competition outside the “national group” in home competitions as 39th (117.0 m) and was unable to confirm his top performance from the qualification. The 22-year-old surprisingly took fourth place there on Friday. Another individual competition will take place in Wisla on Sunday (4 p.m./ARD and Eurosport).
The women didn’t finish in the top 10 either
At noon, Althaus (Oberstdorf), second at the Olympics, was only 21st – she was last worse than the 19-year-old in January 2016 in Oberstdorf. When Norwegian Silje Opseth won, Selina Freitag (Aue) finished 19th and Agnes Reich (Isny) 20th, just ahead of eight-time World Cup winner Althaus. Luisa Görlich (Lauscha) in 26th place and Anna Rupprecht (Degenfeld) in 29th place still collected World Cup points. “Today we can’t be satisfied, we can do that much better,” said national coach Maximilian Mechler: “We now have to discuss why it didn’t work out. But there was a lot of nervousness because we wanted to do it particularly well.”
Norway’s top jumper Maren Lundby celebrated a solid return after a year and a half’s break from competitions, finishing 16th. The Pyeongchang Olympic champion skipped the last Olympic season because of weight “problems” and wanted to take a stand against the lean mania in her sport.
On Sunday there will be more individual competitions for women (12 noon) and men (4 p.m./ARD and Eurosport) at the “early start”. Because the world association wanted to avoid the start of the World Cup, it canceled the first competitions of the season earlier than ever. In Poland, men and women without artificial snow jump on mats like at the Summer Grand Prix.