On Saturday, the ÖSV ski jumpers experienced another bitter shock at the four-mountain tour dress rehearsal in Engelberg. Stefan Kraft finished 13th in the penultimate competition before the first highlight of the season. The victory was secured by the Norwegian Anders Fannemel, who won 0.1 points in snowfall ahead of the German World Cup leader Richard Freitag.
While Olympic champion Kamil Stoch (POL) came closer to his top form as third, the Austrians had nothing to do with the decision. Kraft, who recently did not make it into the top ten in Titisee as ÖSV top man, improved by seven positions in the second round. For the Salzburg citizen, however, there was nothing more than a limitation of damage.
“Whenever you think you can do it now, the man with the hammer will come and give us a hammer,”said the man who won the qualifying session the day before. The two-time third of the season fell back to fifth place behind Stoch in the overall standings. The World Cup defending champion was at a loss as to why things are not going according to plan at the moment,”I can’t say exactly what caused it to fail. But once again, there were many more”, Kraft puzzled. In the second competition on Sunday, however, he wanted to “fully attack”. The twelve-time World Cup winner emphasized that the team also needed to step up a gear.
Second best of the red-white-red team was Michael Hayböck on the 15th place. Place. The previous year’s winner slipped back considerably in the final from ninth intermediate rank after the first round. At the end of the season, the Upper Austrian, who paused in Germany last week, had his best result of the season:”At least one of the rounds was already quite good again. It’s up, I’ll take that from today,”Hayböck said.
With Daniel Huber (18th), Clemens Aigner (21st) and Manuel Fettner (22nd) three more Austrians came into the points. Manuel Poppinger (39th) and World Cup record winner Gregor Schlierenzauer (46th) were only spectators after too weak jumps in the final. Before the tour the team of ÖSV-Cheftrainer Heinz Kuttin has only one chance to recharge their self-confidence.
On the other hand, things continue to run like clockwork for the Germans and Norwegians. Friday, Andreas Wellinger (6th) was leading the strong DSV team again. Daniel Andre Tande (4th) and Halvor Egner Granerud (5th) took the lead in Norway alongside winner Fannemel.