Ski-jumping: Hannawald trusts Wellinger overall World Cup

The former ski jumping star Sven Hannawald believes that vice world champion Andreas Wellinger will be able to take the big leap in the season starting this weekend.

“Andreas Wellinger has a good chance of winning the overall World Cup. In terms of power technology, it increased again in the summer”, said Hannawald at t-online. de.

The 22-year-old Wellinger had achieved the best result of his career last season with fourth place.

According to Hannawald, Wellinger’s biggest competitors come from Austria and Poland.

“My top three favourites in the fight for the overall World Cup are Wellinger, Kubacki and Kraft,”said Hannawald, who was the only jumper to win all four competitions of the Four Hills Tournament in 2001/02.

Behind Dawid Kubacki, Stefan Kraft and Wellinger, Hannawald has from a German point of view Richard Freitag and Markus Eisenbichler on the list.

Both of them “definitely have the potential to reach the top of the world. The only question is, are they mentally going to get it on the redoubt? They are on the cutting edge of the world, and there is a risk of forcing success. And that’s not a good guide in ski jumping,”said the 43-year-old.

Former World Champion Severin Freund misses the Olympic Winter due to a torn cruciate ligament, which will open on Saturday with a team jump and on Sunday with an individual competition in Wisla, Poland.