On the second World Cup day in Sapporo, only Andreas Wellinger from the DSV team was able to convince. When Stefan Kraft won, Geiger only finished 22nd.
The German ski jumpers experience another disappointing World Cup day in Sapporo, Japan. As on Friday, January 20th, Andreas Wellinger was the best German. With two jumps over 130 meters, he finished seventh and improved on his result from the day before, where he finished eighth.
The Austrian Stefan Kraft secured the victory. The basis was his good first jump, which gave him a comfortable jump before the final. He also needed this in difficult conditions. With 283.5 points, he ends up ahead of the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud (277.9). Local hero Ryoyu Kobayashi showed the best jump in the final, in which he started eleventh. With his 137.5 meters and good posture grades, he was able to outperform most of his opponents. After his win the day before, he took third place (276.1).
Geiger disappointed again
As on Friday, things didn’t go well for the rest of the DSV team. Stephan Leyhe was unable to repeat his solid first run, which he finished in tenth place. In difficult conditions he had to wait a long time, finally landing at 117.5 meters. 236.9 points meant 17th place in the end.
After a disappointing first round, things didn’t go any better for Karl Geiger in the final either. The 29-year-old from Oberstdorf found the conditions difficult, but he didn’t jump cleanly either and landed after 121.5 meters – 22nd place (227.0). Constantin Schmid did it a little better. He jumped 123.5 meters and improved from 24th to 19th place (231.8).
Raimund is passed to the back
On the other hand, youngster Philipp Raimund was not able to use his good starting position. After his 17th place in the first round, he botched the second jump, landed after only 115 meters and was passed down to 27th place (219.3).
Eisenbichler is eliminated in the first round
The competition went particularly badly for Markus Eisenbichler. After jumping just 123 meters, disappointment and frustration could be seen as he left the stadium. In the end, that meant for him: 31st place – no second round, no World Cup points.
Favorites failure in Sapporo
In difficult and changeable conditions, numerous top athletes struggled in the first round. So Anze Lanisek only landed at 103.5 meters. The Austrian Jan Hörl was also eliminated. Yesterday’s winner Ryoyu Kobayashi is eleventh on his home hill.
The day before, things didn’t go well for the DSV jumpers in Sapporo either. Only Andreas Wellinger was able to convince with his eighth place, Karl Geiger, Constantin Schmid, Markus Eisenbichler and Stephan Leyhe took places 20, 22, 23 and 24.
Ski jumping oldie Noriaki Kasai (50) failed in his World Cup comeback after three years, just like on Friday in the qualification. This time the Japanese missed the leap into the top 50 in 55th place.
