Ski jumping: Leyhe surprises as second in qualification

Stephan Leyhe surprised with second place in the qualification for the World Cup in Wisla. The 25-year-old had to admit defeat to double world champion Stefan Kraft (126.5 m) with a flight of 124.5 m.

Vice World Champion Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding/121.5 m) also aroused hopes of a successful start to the season as fourth place finishers. The other five DSV eagles also qualified without any problems for the individual competition on Sunday (15 o’ clock in the LIVETICKER).

Richard Freitag (Aue/5.), Karl Geiger (Oberstdorf/8.) and Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf/10.) finished in the top ten, and Pius Paschke (Kiefersfelden) and David Siegel (Baiersbronn) finished 15th and 20th in the top 50. The season will open on Saturday (16.00 hrs) with a team jumping competition.

The former Four Hills Tournament winner Jakub Janda experienced a bitter moment. The Czech, who wanted to take part in the last competition of his career on Sunday, retired in 64th place. prematurely. Janda (39) starts his second career as a politician of the Democratic Civic Party (ODS) in the Czech parliament on Monday.

For the first time there were no seeded athletes in the qualification. In the future, every jumper has to take part in the competition and reach a place among the top 50 in order to compete. So far, the ten best of the overall World Cup were automatically qualified for the competition.