Four Hills Tournament: Kraft wins ski jumping qualification – Wellinger in ninth place

The Austrian Stefan Kraft won the qualification for the final of the Four Hills Tournament in Bischofshofen. The 31-year-old ski jumper won with a jump of 142 meters ahead of his compatriot Maximilian Ortner and the Swiss Gregor Deschwanden.

As the best German, Andreas Wellinger landed in ninth place in front of 4,900 spectators at the Paul-Außerleitner-Schanze. Pius Paschke, Philipp Raimund, Karl Geiger, Felix Hoffmann and Adrian Tittel, the other athletes from national coach Stefan Horngacher’s team also qualified for the competition this Monday (4.30 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport). However, the Germans will have nothing to do with the fight for the Golden Eagle for the winner.

Three-way battle for the golden eagle

The three Austrians Kraft, Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig are likely to win among themselves. There is only 72 centimeters between leader Kraft and third-placed Tschofenig. In the qualification, Tschofenig took fourth place, Hörl came sixth.

Of the German team, Paschke is still the best in the race in the tour standings, coming in sixth. However, at just over 21 meters, he is too far behind the podium to have any serious hopes of a top-three finish. Paschke also lost his yellow jersey, which he had worn as the overall World Cup leader at the beginning of the tour. “We went in with great ambitions, but unfortunately we got worse rather than better,” said Horngacher on ZDF.