The 28-year-old Wellinger already dominated Thursday’s qualifying on Schattenberg and led after the first round. In total, the two-time Olympic champion and world champion beat two-time Tour winner Ryoju Kobayashi from Japan by three points. SP leader Stefan Kraft from Austria finished third with a distance of 10.4 points.
In front of 25,500 spectators, Wellinger won the sixth Cup race of his career and the first on the Tour. The second man in the 2018 mini-series has been struggling for a long time with the consequences of a torn cruciate ligament in his knee, and two years ago in Oberstdorf he did not advance from the qualification. The longest jump of the event of 139.5 meters in the first round and 128 meters in the second secured his victories.
“It’s indescribable, I’m terribly happy. I felt a strange lightness. To win in front of such an audience is indescribable,” rejoiced Wellinger, who revived the German fans’ dream of the first Tour winner since Sven Hannawald 22 years ago.
The only Czech participant in the Koudelka Tour advanced to the second round from 23rd place and scored his first points in his seventh start of the season. The 34-year-old representative jumped 118 meters in the first round and clearly defeated the favored Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal in a traditional knockout. In the second round, in different windy conditions, the long-time Czech number one hit the 125-meter mark.
In the very first jump, Halvor Egner Granerud lost his theoretical hope of defending his victory at the Tour. Although the Norwegian jumper did not do as well this year as last season, in which he dominated the overall standings of the World Cup, his jump of 105.5 meters and the finish after the first round were still a surprise. “I feel completely empty,” Granerud, who took the first non-progressive 31st place, said in a TV interview.
The tour will continue on New Year’s Eve with qualifying for the second German race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
