Status: 02/26/2023 8:08 p.m
The old mixed team world champion is the new one: The German ski jumpers win the gold medal at the Nordic World Ski Championships.
The DSV team around Katharina Althaus, Selina Freitag, Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger defied the tough conditions on Sunday (February 26th, 2023) and ousted Norway and Slovenia in an exciting competition.
“It was a very tight box. The jump from Katha was the game changer. It’s the greatest thing to win together with the team,” said Geiger happily on ZDF.
While Germany is becoming a medal hamster, it was the first medal at the World Championships at home for the Slovenians. However, only a few fans cheered her, because the ticket prices are exorbitantly high, many seats remained empty again.
Althaus outstanding
Althaus, who sensationally won her third gold in the third competition and only brought Germany to the top with a dream jump in the final, had a huge share of the gold for Germany. Wellinger then sailed Gold home.
At halftime the Germans were still 4.4 points behind Norway. Slovenia ranked third. Behind them there was already a bigger gap to Japan and Austria. The medals were awarded who would win gold, silver and bronze, but was still completely open. And that up to the last jumper. “It was tremendous. Cool, we defended the title,” said men’s national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF and added: “It couldn’t have gone better.”
The mixed competition is simply the chocolate side of the Germans, who won for the fifth time and didn’t let a tough affair bother them. Because of changing winds, the jumpers sometimes had to remain on the ice-cold starting beam for minutes.
Friday makes for a good starting position
Selina Freitag, who opened the mixed competition for the DSV-Adler, also crouched in the cold for what felt like an eternity before she was allowed to jump. The sentence to 99 meters was all the more impressive. In the second round things didn’t go well with a tailwind. With 95 meters, Germany fell back to third place.
Selina Freitag in action at ski jumping.
Image: AFP/JURE MAKOVEC
Violinist strong – Zajc outstanding
Karl Geiger worked one day later Bronze in singles deeply relaxed, but struggled in the first round with difficult conditions (92.5 meters). Things went much better in the final: The man from Oberstdorf convinced with 98 meters, but the gap to Slovenia grew because Timi Zajc sailed on 103 meters. Norway (André Johann Forfang/ 98 m) also stayed ahead of the DSV eagles.
Althaus puts Germany on course for gold
Then it was the turn of double world champion Katharina Althaus and no matter what she tackles in the days of Planica, it just works. After 94.5 meters in the first round, Althaus added 102 meters in the final and put pressure on Norway and Slovenia (Ema Klinec), who jumped much shorter and had to let Germany pass.
Wellinger cool to gold
Germany led before the last jumper. Now it was up to Andreas Wellinger to bring the gold home. The Bavarian had to be patient again forever because the wind wasn’t playing along. Nevertheless, he had his nerves under control and made the gold medal perfect with 98 meters. In the end, Germany was 12.7 points ahead of Norway. “Unreal, but super awesome,” Wellinger laughed after the gold coup. The free Monday comes just in time. It could be getting late in the house of the Germans.
Source: sportschau.de