Ski Jumping: Tschofenig and Hörl Celebrate Double Success

At the close of the World Cup weekend in Lake Placid, expectations were high within the German Ski Association (DSV) for a significant breakthrough. In the final individual jump of the weekend, the team under coach Stefan Horngacher had little influence on the podium placements, partly due to variable wind conditions.

The victory went to Four Hills tournament champion Daniel Tschofenig, who managed to stay ahead of his Austrian teammate Jan Hörl as well as the Slovene, Anze Lanisek. Despite finishing in eleventh place, 29‐year-old Andreas Wellinger expressed satisfaction with his performance, believing that he was once again on the right track. He noted, however, that it would have been even better if he had achieved an even longer jump.

In the mixed team event, although the German squad had experienced a series of struggles – having gone two and a half weeks without a top-ten finish prior to the World Championships in Trondheim – there were positive signs. In the individual round that had been disappointing earlier, the best performance came from Wellinger who finished sixteenth. In the subsequent mixed contest, both Philipp Raimund and Wellinger delivered good jumps, providing a slight upturn for the DSV team.

In the second round on the big hill the order was shuffled once again. Tschofenig managed to snatch the victory ahead of Jan Hörl, while Ryoyu Kobayashi lost his position to Anze Lanisek and ended up fifth behind Norway’s Johann Andre Forfang. Andreas Wellinger improved his attempt with a jump of 122.5 m on his first attempt, though he eventually finished in eleventh place. Not far behind, Karl Geiger managed jumps of 123.5 m and 124.5 m to secure the twelfth spot. Overall, the duo of Wellinger and Geiger produced the strongest results at the Lake Placid stop of the World Cup.

Stephan Leyhe, who fell back two places to finish 26th, contrasted with Philipp Raimund who improved from 28th by two positions. Leyhe summed up his performance by acknowledging that he still needed to work on his jumping technique in preparation for the upcoming competition in Sapporo.

Additional live results and further details from the men's ski jumping World Cup can be found on Sportschau.de, as the German team takes hope from these incremental improvements moving forward into the international season.