The German ski jumpers flew to the podium at their home game in Titisee-Neustadt. In the second victory of vice world champion Norway (1033.6 points) World Cup leader Richard Freitag, Andreas Wellinger, Markus Eisenbichler and Karl Geiger finished third with 1054.7 points. Second place went to World Champion Poland (1082.8).
“We weren’t as close as we were in the last few stations, but it would have been necessary,”said national coach Werner Schuster on ARD television:”We started with great ambitions. The eight jumps weren’t the level to win here.”
Outstanding jumpers in the German team, which was already in third place after the first round, were Wellinger and Freitag.
The 22-year-old Wellinger came to 139.5 and 141.0 m and also aroused hopes for the individual competition on Sunday. In the second round, the Saxon showed the farthest flight of the day:”Tomorrow we will attack,”said Schuster.
In difficult conditions, however, Geiger had to settle for 123.0 and 129.5 m and prevented a better result:”Karl didn’t have it easy and didn’t run up to top form,”Schuster said.
Eisenbichler came in front of 5000 spectators at 134.5 and 128.0 m, but the secretly hoped for home win was missing at the end of the race, which was about 16 meters.
The DSV team has been waiting for a victory in Zakopane since its success in January 2017.
The Norwegians, Daniel Andre Tande, Johann Andre Forfang, Anders Fannemel and Robert Johansson also won the third jumping event of the Olympic Winter and celebrated their fifth victory in a row. Among the Poles, Kami Stoch, winner of the Four Hills Tournament, and Dawid Kuback dominated.