Photo: imago / GEPA
Because two Austrians fell far behind in the final, Lovro Kos from Slovenia secured the first World Cup victory of his career in Lake Placid, USA. Andreas Wellinger, as the best DSV Adler, has no chance in the fight for victory.
With jumps of 123.5 and 125 meters, Lovro Kos secured victory in the first of two individual competitions this weekend in Lake Placid. The Slovenian, who already won the qualification on Friday evening, scored a total of 278.9 points on Saturday and beat the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi, who reached 125.5 and 122 meters (278.1 points). Marius Lindvik from Norway took third place with 121.5 and 133 meters (277.8 p.).
After the first round, everything pointed to an Austrian victory: the overall World Cup leader Stefan Kraft was still in the lead after his first jump of 127.5 meters, ahead of compatriot Clemens Aigner. But in sometimes turbulent conditions, both Austrians fell back significantly and only finished the first of three competitions this weekend in 22nd (Aigner) and 24th (Kraft).
Wellinger best German
The best German was once again Andreas Wellinger, who, exactly six years after his Olympic victory in Pyeongchang, had no chance in the fight for victory this time. The Ruhpoldinger reached 121 and 121.5 meters and thus took seventh place.
“The wind was a bit changeable, but I had no feeling at all, especially in the right lane. “I was almost a kilometer per hour slower than in the first round,” the Ruhpoldinger analyzed on “ARD” after the second round.
» Event overview: Schedule & information about the World Cup weekend in Lake Placid
National coach Stefan Horngacher is now faced with the decision as to which of his athletes he will nominate alongside Wellinger for the super team in the evening: The second best German this time was Felix Hoffmann, who achieved his best career result to date in the World Cup in eleventh place – but Karl Geiger (12th) finished just behind the 26-year-old.
In addition, Philipp Raimund (16th) and Pius Paschke (25th) also collected further World Cup points. Stephan Leyhe was surprisingly eliminated after the first round with 33rd place.
ÖSV ski jumpers miss the podium
Despite the surprising setback for Kraft and Aigner in the second round, the Austrian ski jumpers once again demonstrated their strong team performance with two athletes in the top ten: Michael Hayböck narrowly missed the podium in fourth place, Daniel Huber took fifth directly behind him Place.
» Overall World Cup 2023/2024 (men): The current overall season ranking at a glance
Aleksander Zniszczol from Poland performed surprisingly well in sixth place and the Italian Giovanni Bresadola in eighth place. In addition, the Swiss Gregor Deschwanden (9th) and Johann Andre Forfang from Norway (10th) also ended up in the top ten.
» World Cup calendar 2023/2024 (men): All dates at a glance
The second competition of the weekend is scheduled for Saturday evening (local time) in Lake Placid. The rehearsal starts at 10 p.m. and at 11 p.m. (CET / everything live at skispringen.com) then follows the super team competition, in which two athletes from each nation fight for victory in a total of three rounds.
Find out more here at skisprung.com.