Ski jumper Domen Prevc received a warning shot in the qualification in Innsbruck. With difficult tailwind conditions, the Slovenian only came in 30th with 112.0 meters. The Austrian Jan Hörl, Prevc’s closest rival in the fight for overall victory in the Four Hills Tournament, won the preliminary competition with 128.0 meters ahead of three other Austrians. The best German was Felix Hoffmann, fourth in the overall ranking, in fifth place. Philipp Raimund (16th) caused a moment of shock when he crashed into a barrier at too much speed, which then partially broke. Raimund was able to laugh again a little later.
Pius Paschke (23rd) and Karl Geiger (39th) also easily reached the top 50 competition. Andreas Wellinger, however, had a lot of trouble in 50th place. “I was lucky that I slipped in. But I’m not relieved because it doesn’t feel good,” said the two-time Olympic champion, who was 0.1 points ahead of 51st Kilian Peier.
Prevc had won both the qualification and the competition in Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but now there was the first setback. The Austrian Hörl, on the other hand, won in front of 8,400 fans ahead of Stefan Kraft, Stephan Embacher and defending champion Daniel Tschofenig.
Prevc is in the overall ranking with 619.8 points, the equivalent of around 20 meters ahead of Hörl (584.8), third is another ÖSV eagle in Embacher (578.3). Hoffmann (573.2) and Raimund (566.6) follow in fourth and sixth place.
In Innsbruck, Prevc has never gotten higher than ninth place. Thanks to his top form, he still has the best chance of winning the Gold Eagle ten years after his brother Peter. He can also achieve the “Grand Slam” with victories on all four hills; so far only Sven Hannawald (2001/02), the Pole Kamil Stoch (2017/18) and Ryoyu Kobayashi from Japan (2018/19) have achieved this.
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