Philipp Aschenwald and Markus Eisenbichler with the best start in Seefeld
Feb 26, 2019·Ski Jumping
After a day off on Monday, the ski jumpers started the second week of the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld (AUT) with the first official training on the normal hill on Tuesday afternoon.
Austria's Philipp Aschenwald could adjust from the Bergisel to the HS 109 Toni-Seelos-Olympic hill right away and with 100.5 m he was the only one who could land beyond the 100 m-mark in the first round of the day.
After the disappointment in Sunday's team competition, the Poles also had a very good start on this hill. Olympic champion Kamil Stoch and Dawid Kubacki finished second and third with their jumps of 99 m and 98.5 m.
Behind local hero Stefan Kraft (97.5 m), Junior World Champion Thomas Aasen Markeng of Norway convinced with 98 m and the fifth-best jump. Best German in this round was Stephan Leyhe (97 m) in sixth, close ahead of the bronze medalist of the large hill event, Killian Peier of Switzerland (96.5 m).
The new World Champion Markus Eisenbichler was only 21st in the first round, but with 105.5 m in the second round, he showed that he has to be reckoned with here as well. "My second jump was already pretty okay, I'm satisfied with it. I will also participate in tomorrow's training session and then I'll try to improve some details", the Bavarian said afterwards.
Dawid Kubacki jumped on the same distance as Eisenbichler and also confirmed his ambitions for the event on the normal hill three days from now. Killian Peier started from one gate higher than the athletes after him and showed the longest jump of the day with 107 m.
Stefan Kraft (104.5 m) and Stephan Leyhe (102) were also among the very best again. Karl Geiger, the silver medalist on the large hill, improved in the second and final round of the day and was sixth with 102 m. "This hill is a bit different than the one in Innsbruck. The first training was okay. I didn't have great jumps yet, but I'm confident that I'll be able to adjust to this hill", said Geiger.
The men will have another official training on Wednesday at 7:30 pm CET, the qualification for Friday's individual competition is held on Thursday at 4:30 pm CET.
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