The German ski jumpers started into the World Championships winter with a strong second place. Richard Freitag (Aue), Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf), Stephan Leyhe (Willingen) and Karl Geiger (Oberstdorf) had to admit defeat at the team competition in Wisla with 1015.5 points only host and world champion Poland (1026.6). Austria (972.0) came in third with a clear deficit.
“This was a good competition, a good start. We wanted to be on the podium here, we missed that last year,” said national coach Werner Schuster on ARD.
After seven of eight rounds his team had even been ahead, but then Olympic champion Kamil Stoch led the hosts to victory. “It was cool that we were there until the last duel,” said Schuster.
Best DSV eagle was surprisingly Leyhe with 128.5 and 126.0 m, in the first run he managed the longest jump of the entire competition. The Willinger had already convinced on Friday in the qualification with rank three and raised hopes for the individual competition on Sunday (15.00 o’clock).
“Stephan has what it takes to get on the podium this winter,” said Schuster.
Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger did not make it into the team after a weak qualification. This also marked the end of a small series: In the past two winters, Wellinger had not missed any of the 14 team jumping competitions.
Olympic champion Norway missed the second run because two-time Olympic bronze medallist Robert Johansson was disqualified due to a non-compliant suit.