Richard Freitag narrowly missed the podium at the World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway. The Saxon rider finished in good fifth place on the 1994 Olympic hill with a double victory in Poland. One could not beat Kamil Stoch, who clearly celebrated his sixth victory of the season ahead of Dawid Kubacki and the Norwegian Robert Johansson. Olympic champion Stoch thus further extended his lead in the overall ranking of the “Raw Air”series.
“That’s a bit of a shame. I tiled the landing on the second jump a little bit. That came from the stomach and is annoying,”said Freitag on ZDF television. The second runner-up of the overall World Cup was still in fourth place after the first round, then, at 141.5 m, he had the longest flight of the day, but failed to land. In the end, there was just under one and a half meters to the podium.
National coach Werner Schuster was nevertheless satisfied with Friday,”Richard has made the best jumps here for almost two months, which was a step forward. The performance today was definitely on the podium, so I’m really happy,”said Schuster.
Once again, however, Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding), who was only 13th on the podium, fell short of expectations. It was changeable today – from the conditions and the jumps,”said Wellinger. Karl Geiger (Oberstdorf), Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf) and Andreas Wank (Hinterzarten) occupied positions 11,16 and 23.
For Stoch it was the 28th. World Cup victory of his career. The winner of the Four Hills Tournament and four-time World Champion Martin Schmitt equalled sixth place in the “eternal” best list. The Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer continues to hold the record with 53 victories.
In the overall standings of the Norway Tour, Stoch is clearly in the lead with 1141.5 points, even after eight of 16 jumps. Behind him in Johansson (1085,3), Johann Andre Forfang (1055,5) and Andreas Stjernen (1053,5) three Norwegians follow. Best German is Friday (1026,6) in eighth place.
Stephan Leyhe (Willingen) had to make do with rank 26 on Tuesday, but, unlike David Siegel (Baiersbronn/32nd), managed to make it into the second round. The Austrian Michael Hayböck also had to pack his suitcases prematurely two days after finishing third in Oslo.
Already on Wednesday (17.30 hrs/Eurosport) the “Raw Air”tour will be continued with the qualification in Trondheim. The series introduced in 2017 ends on the weekend at the “Monsterbakken” in Vikersund, the overall winner receives a prize of 60,000 euros.