The Norwegian ski jumper Johann Andre Forfang won the World Cup in Willingen with a hill record. The 28-year-old flew at 144 and 155.5 meters on Saturday in constant rain and celebrated his victory with tears in his eyes in front of over 23,000 ski jumping fans. The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi completed the podium ahead of the Norwegian Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal.
After the first round, the Finn Antti Aalto was surprisingly in the lead with a jump of 147.5 meters. However, he fell back to 14th place after the second round (128 m). The German ski jumpers disappointed and delivered their weakest performance of the entire winter at their home World Cup. Local hero Stephan Leyhe, who achieved his only World Cup victory to date on the Mühlenkopfschanze in 2020, ended up in 15th place with 131 and 135.5 meters. “Today, right from the start, things didn’t work out the way we had imagined. We will look for the errors,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ARD.
Andreas Wellinger fell from seventh to 17th place after a weak second jump on 125.5 meters. Pius Paschke followed in 26th place. Philipp Raimund (31st), Karl Geiger (33rd) and Felix Hoffmann (35th) even missed the second round. “I’m really annoyed. I just didn’t take the jump well. The bitterness of leaving was not something I had planned,” said Geiger.
Katharina Schmid in third place
For the women, Katharina Schmid was able to take advantage of the boost from the home fans. In Austria’s Jacqueline Seifriedsberger’s victory, the 27-year-old came third with jumps of 119.5 and 130 meters. The Japanese Sara Takanashi came second. “Extremely cool in front of such a backdrop. It feels super cool,” said Schmid on ARD. Selina Freitag (14th), Luisa Görlich (15th) and Juliane Seyfarth (18th) fell behind after the second jump.
Ralf Weitbrecht, Bad Mitterndorf Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Ralf Weitbrecht, Bad Mitterndorf Published/Updated: Ralf Weitbrecht, Bad Mitterndorf Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
The constant rain affected the approach lane, especially in the first round. Almost all of the last starters had problems with their approach speed in wet conditions.
