Hoffmann celebrates podium finish

Felix Hoffmann “surprisingly” secures a podium finish at the opening event of the Four Hills Tournament. Philipp Raimund confirmed his strong form with a fifth-place. Unfortunately, the other German athletes were eliminated early in the competition and failed to qualify for the second round.

In front of 25,500 spectators in a completely sold-out stadium at the Schattenbergschanze, the 74th Four Hills Tournament kicked off with an impressive performance by Domen Prevc. But the German team also has reason to celebrate. Felix Hoffmann, in particular, was in strong form. The 28-year-old continued his strong performance from the World Cup in Engelberg and initially landed in fourth place with jumps of 132.5 and 136 meters.
It was only shortly before the award ceremony that it was announced that Slovenian Timi Zajc had been disqualified retrospectively because his jumpsuit was too large. This moved Hoffmann up to third place and he was delighted to be on the podium.

Philipp Raimund also put in a convincing performance. Competing for SC Oberstdorf, the ski jumper showed strong nerves in front of his home crowd and confirmed his good qualifying performance. With jumps of 136 and 133 meters, he finished fifth and kept pace with the leading group. Philipp's performance once again underlines that he has established himself among the best this season.
Philipp Raimund about his performance after the competition: “My jumps weren't quite at their best, but I have to say I'm very satisfied. I'm relatively close to second place in the Tour. So I think I can be quite happy.”

The competition was less successful for the other German starters. Andreas Wellinger was eliminated in the knockout round by Hoffmann. After a jump of 110.5 meters, he unfortunately failed to find his usual rhythm in this competition and finished second to last. Wellinger had recently decided not to compete in Engelberg in order to fit in an extra training session before the Four Hills Tournament.

Pius Paschke also narrowly missed out on the final round. With a jump of 122.5 meters, last year's sixth-placed finisher in the overall Tour standings was just 0.3 points short of qualifying, and he was denied a lucky loser spot. Constantin Schmid (109 meters) and Luca Roth (114 meters) were defeated in their duels against Ryoyu Kobayashi and Jan Hörl, respectively. Karl Geiger had already failed to qualify and did not compete in the opening jump.

Today’s competition results