Podium finish at the start of the World Cup for the ÖSV ski jumpers

Austria Ski jumping team took first place on Friday at the World Cup opener Lillehammer in the first of three Mixed competitions third place this season. The quartet with Lisa Eder, Eva Pinkelnig, Daniel Tschofenig and Jan Hörl The winner Germany had to admit defeat by 31.5 points. In the end, second-placed Norway were 9.2 points behind. On Saturday and Sunday there are two individual competitions for women and men on the program. Among the Germans, who celebrated a mixed victory in the World Cup for the first time, Pius Paschke was the best with 136.5 and 133.5 meters.

The ÖSV team was the overall World Cup winner Stefan Kraft On Friday there were still spectators, Tschofenig and Hörl had presented themselves even better in training for head coach Andreas Widhölzl. What stood out from the eight jumps of the red-white-red crew was Hörl’s 139.5 m jump in the first round, after the ÖSV team was already in third place. Austria didn’t have a chance of its second victory in the mixed doubles that day.

“Basically very positive,” said Hörl, summing up the World Cup start with a mixed competition for the first time ever. “The first jump was very okay, that’s the direction it should go. In the second I overpaced a bit, it was very aggressive. You learn from mistakes,” said the two-time World Cup winner in the previous season, including on Bergisel.

Stricter telemark rating already visible

Athletes and fans alike got a first impression of the new, stricter one Telemark review. Eder, for example, sailed down to a good 131 m in the second round, but made a mistake when landing and lost so many points. The realization that it’s better to jump shorter in order to land perfectly will probably come back to haunt you more often this World Cup season. “Small wobbles when landing are punished properly,” said Hörl. A lot of work was done on it in the summer, but “on snow it’s something different.”

Eva Pinkelnig, the overall World Cup runner-up in 2023/24, only landed at 118.5 and 124 meters and was therefore dissatisfied. “Thanks to my teammates, they definitely handled it better than me. My jumps still have potential,” explained the Vorarlberg native. She hopes that in the remaining weekend there will be at least “one jump that I can really cheer about.” Daniel Tschofenig (“We all did solidly, but we all still have a bit of work to do”) landed at 124.5 and 130 meters.

The start will continue on Saturday and Sunday (12.30 p.m. women, 4 p.m. men) with two individual competitions in Lillehammer, which is not yet wintery.