Two competition jumps left. Then the magic is over again. Then the 72nd edition of the Four Hills Tournament will be history. With a happy ending for Andreas Wellinger? Bischofshofen can look forward to excitement this Saturday (4:30 p.m. on ARD and Eurosport). Wellinger is only 2.66 meters behind overall leader Ryoyu Kobayashi. The Olympic champion, who can bring the Golden Eagle, the trophy for overall victory, back to Germany on his favorite hill 22 years after Sven Hannawald, knows that this gap is small. “I hope that the conditions are good,” says Wellinger: “Then two and a half meters are nothing on the big hill.”
Seven years ago, Wellinger showed that he particularly liked the Bakken in Pongau. In the qualification at that time he set an example on the Paul-Außerleitner-Schanze. His jump of 144.5 meters was a hill record. The record was linked to Wellinger’s name for two years. Only the Pole Dawid Kubacki broke the mark and jumped half a meter further, a record to this day.
The Wellinger plan: “Hammer the thing out with self-confidence”
On Friday, at the qualification, Wellinger came ninth with a jump of 128 meters. Kobayashi only landed at 138 meters and won the preliminary round. “There were a total of three jumps today with three different variations. I have to do better tomorrow,” said Wellinger. “The stimulus conduction didn’t work so well.” The Olympic champion has an idea of how things could go better. “I will hammer the thing out with confidence, stay in the air for as long as possible and land cleanly,” he says: “And then there will be a list of results. And then you’ll see from the look on my face whether I’m happy or not.”
Wellinger’s teammates cannot be satisfied with their performance so far. Above all, Karl Geiger will travel to Allgäu to visit his wife and daughter, more or less disappointed. Because the Oberstdorfer, like the other German jumpers, no longer had a chance to fight for overall victory after the second competition. He wants to pool all his strengths once again and support his teammate. “If there’s something to do, be it carrying the bag during the doping test or whatever, then we’ll do it,” says Geiger, who is 14th in the overall ranking, far below his own expectations: “And otherwise we’re keeping our fingers crossed there.” Stephan Leyhe also thinks of his roommate: “It is the ultimate goal that Andi gets through well.” All for one, all for Wellinger.
The German jumper used the rest day after jumping on the Bergisel, in which Wellinger finished fifth and lost the overall lead to Kobayashi, to recharge his batteries. At dinner he was allowed to “fill his stomach really well,” as he says mischievously: “The others are always jealous of my plate. Most of the time there is twice as much on it.” Streaming friend Wellinger recently watched the series “Code of Crime” with Leyhe. Unlike the documentary about the former football player David Beckham, the crime thriller was not to his taste. “After a quarter of an hour I fell asleep.” In Bischofshofen it is important to be well rested.
“This is a bit of Andi’s home hill”
Stefan Horngacher is also looking forward to the final. “This is a bit of Andi’s home hill,” says the national coach. But Kobayashi is a very uncomfortable opponent. In the last five meetings with the aesthete of the skies, Wellinger was always behind the Japanese in Bischofshofen. In addition, Kobayashi has already won twice at the final venue of the tour. In any case, Wellinger has an advantage over the Asian who is in the lead. In the inrun lane he is the fastest of all tour jumpers. The four-time German ski jumping world champion Martin Schmitt, who is following the Four Hills Tournament as an expert on behalf of the TV channel Eurosport, is certain: “He can exploit this speed advantage on the long, flat run-up in Bischofshofen.”
Ralf Weitbrecht, Innsbruck Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Ralf Weitbrecht, Innsbruck Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 A comment from Ralf Weitbrecht, Innsbruck Published/Updated:
Nuances are likely to make the difference. Which of the two will find the perfect jumping off point? Who can get into the best flight position faster? Werner Schuster has an idea of what is to come for Wellinger. “There is no harder bone than Kobayashi,” said the 54-year-old in a double interview with “Heilbronner Stimme” and “Allgäuer Zeitung”. Schuster, who was successful as national coach at the German Ski Association between 2008 and 2019, has a lot of praise for Wellinger. In 2018, the Austrian Wellinger led to Olympic victory. “He is one of the greater talents there is on this planet. He came in like a comet in the beginning, but also learned some hard lessons. This has allowed him to mature enormously as a person.” Overall victory is within reach.
