Poles dominate qualification in Innsbruck
Jan 03, 2023·Ski Jumping
Dawid Kubacki won the qualification round in Innsbruck ahead of Kamil Stoch. The leader of the Four-Hills-Tournament, Halvor Egner Garnered, finished 13th. Karl Geiger from Germany sensationally did not qualify for the competition.
The Polish athletes showed very good performances in the qualification on Wednesday. World Cup leader Dawid Kubacki took first place with his jump of 128 metres, Kamil Stoch (126 metres) was second. Both will meet team mates in the knockout duels. Kubacki will compete against Stefan Hula and Stoch against Jan Habdas.
"It was a pleasure to jump here today. I think we found a little detail with our team that helped my jumping here. I improved it and it really worked in the qualification," Kubacki said.
"It's a little thing in the inrun position that will help me in the jump," the Pole added.
Anze Lanisek finished third. The Slovenian already showed a strong performance in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and still has chances for the overall podium of the 71st Four-Hills-Tournament despite the weaker performance in the opener in Oberstdorf.
Halvor Egner Granerud was not the strongest Norwegian this time. He won the first official training round but finished 13th in the qualification, his teammates Marius Lindvik and Johann Andre Forfang came in fourth and fifth.
"I came a bit too offensive from the start. my inrun position was not where I wanted it to be and I was also a bit late in the jump," Garnerud explained. "It was a difficult jump."
The Austrian team put in another strong performance with Jan Hoerl, Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayboeck in the top 10, with Daniel Tschofenig 12th and Manuel Fettner 14th.
Unexpectedly, Karl Geiger did not make it into the competition. The strongest German athlete, who was fifth in the overall tour ranking after the competitions in Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Four Hills Tournament, jumped to 108 metres and was only 51st, missing the 50th place by 0.2 points.
"I can't really put it into words yet, that was intense. I didn't get that jump at all, then Innsbruck is just hard, that was just rubbish. Now I have to put a check mark behind it and get to the bottom of it," explained the completely frustrated Geiger after his jump.
None of the German athletes could place in the top 10, but four of them finished between 11th and 20th place. Philipp Raimund was the best with 11th place.
Vilho Palosaari from Finland once again showed a good performance with 17th place. Antti Aalto also made it into the top 20.
The competition starts on Wednesday at 1.30 pm.
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