Led by another strong Richard Freitag, the German ski jumpers flew to the podium in the team competition of Kuusamo. The DSV-Adler were second in Finland with 1116.9 points, only beating the superior Norwegians (1184.2) and secured the first German podium place in the Olympic Winter. Japan came in third (1108.2).
The five-time World Cup winner Freitag (Aue), already in the first round with 136.5 m best German, countered in the last jump with a shortened start with 138.0 m not only the attack of the Austrian Stefan Kraft, who had set a jump record of 147.5 m for his country.
The 26-year-old also intercepted Junshiro Kobayashi (129.5), who had previously been second with Japan.
In a team without a runaway to the bottom, the two-time Vice World Champion Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding) showed a further upward form with 133.5 and 134.0 m.
Pius Paschke (Kiefersfelden), who competed his first team jumping in the World Cup at the age of 27, made a brilliant debut with a strong 132.0 and 133.0 m and emphatically applied for an Olympic competition as the German number four.
Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf/130,0+132,0) showed two very solid jumps.
World champion Poland only finished sixth (985.5) after Piotr Zyla was disqualified in the first round because of a non-conformist suit.
On Sunday (15 o’ clock) there will be an individual competition in Kuusamo, for which six German jumpers are qualified.