Daniel Andre Tande on top in Willingen

Daniel Andre Tande was the "Man of the Day" on Saturday in Willingen. With jumps of 148 m and 146.5 m the 24-year-old won the first of two competitions this weekend and also took the lead in the overall ranking of the Willingen5 after three of the five jumps, ahead of Richard Freitag and Poland's Kamil Stoch. In today's competition, Richard Freitag and Dawid Kubacki of Poland came in second and third.

The 25 000 fans at the Muehlenkopf-hill in Willingen saw a competition on a high level with lots of long jumps, in which Ski Flying World Champion Daniel Andre Tande came out on top. This was the fourth win in the World Cup for Tande, the first this season. "I had an extremely good second jump today, I was also lucky with the wind conditions and so I was able to fly far. I had some luck on my side and of course, I also made a good jump. Winning here so close before the Olympics is an additional motivation. After I was at home sick for a week today's result shows me that I'm still jumping well enough to win. This gives me a lot of confidence and I know that if I do my job well I'll be able to fight for the gold in PyeongChang", said Tande, who is already the ninth winner in this World Cup season.

Richard Freitag presented himself in a great shape once again and closely missed the victory today. In the overall ranking of the Willingen5 he is also only 0.5 points behind Tande. Freitag jumped on 149.5 m (the longest jump of the day) and 141.5 m and came in only 0.8 points behind Today today. "My jumps were good, I'm satisfied. I'm still struggling with the landing after long jumps, I have to improve that step by step", said Freitag, who fell in Innsbruck after the landing. "The format with five jumps counting for the overall ranking is similar to the 4-Hills-Tournament and I think it's very interesting. You have jump very consistent in order to be among the best in the end."

The third place went to Poland's Dawid Kubacki. For the 27-year-old, this was the second third place this winter as he already achieved the same result in the opening event of the 4-Hills-Tournament in Oberstdorf. "I'm satisfied with my jumps today because they were pretty good. I did my job on the hill and I really enjoyed this competition, such long jumps are the reason why we do this sport. I'm happy with the result, it's satisfying for me. There are always many people from Poland here and it's incredible how many come to the hills to cheer for us and for all the others. They provide a really good atmosphere."

Only 0.3 points behind Kubacki, top favorite Kamil Stoch finished fourth today. Stoch is still in a good position when it comes to the fight for the overall title of the Willingen5. Andreas Wellinger was fifth on Saturday, followed by Stefan Hula of Poland (6th), Norway's Johann Andre Forfang (7th) and his teammate Robert Johansson (8th).

Austria's Daniel Huber surprised in ninth, Tilen Bartol was tenth and the only Slovene among the Top 10 today. Markus Eisenbichler (12th), Karl Geiger (14th) and Stephan Leyhe (16th) all did a good job. The Germans are traveling to PyeongChang with a strong team and have a good chance of winning a medal there.

After three of five jumps, Daniel Andre Tande leads the Willingen5 ahead of Richard Freitag and Kamil Stoch.

In the overall World Cup, Richard Freitag (817 points) could extend his lead today. Kamil Stoch (783 points) and Andreas Wellinger (710 points) are second and third.

The second competition in Willingen will start on Sunday at 10:20 am CET.