Germany takes gold, Althaus keeps on winning
Feb 26, 2023·Ski Jumping
Germany won the mixed team competition at the World Championships for the fifth consecutive time. Katharina Althaus achieved her third gold medal in Planica following her triumphs in the individual and women's team events. Norway took silver and Slovenia bronze.
It was another windy and exciting evening in Planica. The German squad made up of the ladies individual World Champion Katharina Althaus, very strong and consistent Selina Freitag, two medalists Karl Geiger and Andreas Wellinger, was seen as the top contender. But after six jumps three nations had still good chances for a win.
Slovenia (Nika Kriznar, Timi Zajc, Ema Klinec, Anze Lanisek) was in the lead ahead of Norway (Anna Odine Stroem, Johann Andre Forfang, Thea Minyan Bjoerseth, Halvor Egner Granerud) and Germany.
With a huge jump on 102 meters by Althaus, the German team moved up to the first place. Norway's Thea Minyan Bjoerseth (99.5 meters) and Slovenia's Ema Klinec (91 meters) didn't produce such a strong performance.
Anze Lanisek and Halvor Egner Granerud showed great jumps, but not far enough to put pressure on Germany. Wellinger did his job and landed at 98 meters to secure the gold medal. Germany won the mixed team competition for the fifth time in a row following triumphs in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Althaus is so far the greatest star of the World Championships in Planica. She achieved all three possible gold medals. And she is on the right way to become the first-ever ski jumper to win four golds at one championships.
"I can''t believe it. What happened in the last days... I'm so happy and thankful. It's like a dream. Also the other athletes made a great effort. It was a lot of fun jumping here. We are one team and we are so strong. And we achieved the title for the fifth time!," Althaus said after the competition.
Germany collected a total of 1017.2 points. Norway scored 1004.5 and Slovenia 1000.4.
"It's unbelievable. The conditions were very difficult today. Andreas Wellinger jumped really well and Karl Geiger made a small mistake in the first round, but the second jump was also very good. Katharina was jumping amazing. Selina also showed great jumps. I'm so happy that we won the title," head coach of the Germany's men team Stefan Horngacher claimed.
The fourth place went to Austria (Chiara Kreuzer, Jan Hoerl, Eva Pinkelnig, Stefan Kraft) and Japan (Nozomi Maruyama, Naoki Nakamura, Yuki Ito, Ryoyu Kobayashi) came in fifth.
The individual men's World Champion Piotr Zyla once again showed great performance. With his first jump on 101 meters Poland earned qualification for the final round. Eventually, the Polish team ended up eighth behind Finland and Switzerland.
Teams of Italy, the USA, Czechia, China, Romania, Kazakhstan and Ukraine didn't make the cut for the final round.
Ladies have one remaining competition in Planica. The individual competition at the large hill will be held on Wednesday. Men will compete on Friday in the individual event on on Saturday in the team competition.
