Ski jumper Selina Freitag also flew onto the podium on the second day of the “Two Nights Tour”. In the tearful farewell to record world champion Katharina Schmid from Oberstdorf, the Oberwiesenthaler impressed in third place. The Canadian Abigail Strate took her first World Cup victory, and the overall victory in what was probably the last “half of the Four Hills Tournament” went again to Nika Prevc from Slovenia.
But the focus was on Schmid, who ended her career after the Olympic winter and competed in her home country one last time. “It was emotional, but I really enjoyed it,” said the 29-year-old after finishing eleventh on ZDF: “I tried to concentrate on the jump. That didn’t quite work – it was always in the back of my mind that it was the last competition at home.” Friday, who had already come second the day before at the first tour stop in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, had to fight in difficult wind conditions after jumps of 128.0 and 118.0 meters alongside Strate Chinese woman Pink Zeng admits defeat. In the final tally of the tour, this meant second place behind world champion Prevc (527.7) with 505.3 points.
A fourth place in Oberstdorf was enough for the Slovenian to win the tour, as she did in the last two years. A few hours after her brother Domen’s tour triumph in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the world record holder flew at 105.0 and 128.5 m; after the first round she was only in 17th place. In doing so, she also secured a bonus of 10,000 euros. Starting next season, a full-fledged Four Hills Tournament for women will finally be held at all four traditional locations; according to the “Garmisch model”, the women’s competition will be held on the men’s day. The okay was recently given for the construction of a floodlight system in Innsbruck, which has so far been a sticking point.
