Dawid Kubacki wins in Titisee-Neustadt
Jan 18, 2020·Ski Jumping
4-Hills champion Dawid Kubacki won the first of the FIS World Cups in Titisee-Neustadt on Saturday evening. The Pole claimed his third World Cup win, his second this season. Austria's Stefan Kraft and Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan came in second and third.
About 10 000 fans celebrated the win of the reigning World Champion. "It almost felt like a home competition today", said Kubacki, for whom the many Polish fans at the hill sang the Polish national anthem at the award ceremony. On the hill that was perfectly prepared despite the mild temperatures and the lack of snow, Kubacki posted jumps of 140.5 m and 141 m.
"I'm really glad I could share these emotions with them today. I'm very happy that I could stand on top of the podium today and it was a nice experience for everyone who came here", said the winner, who could already enjoy the support of the fans even before his jumps. "When you are up on the hill you can hear the crowd, but you have to remain focused on your goals. When you feel the energy of the fans and you hear them cheering for you it's a great feeling."
After his two second places in Predazzo last weekend, Stefan Kraft came in second once again today. "The conditions were perfect today, it was very fair regarding the wind. As you can see on the result list there were only very small differences and it was a lot of fun today. The hill was perfectly prepared despite the mild temperatures recently. It was a very good competition for me, the second jump was definitely my best here. In the first round, I was a bit late at the take-off, but it was still very good. Dawid was extremely strong today", said the Austrian.
Only about 0.9 points behind Kraft, Ryoyu Kobayashi was third. After he was in a poor shape a week ago in Predazzo, the Japanese is now back and among the top contenders in the fight for the lead in the overall World Cup. My take-off was not that good today, but I managed to compensate for that in the flight. I'm happy that I ended up in third place. The weather was really good for Ski Jumping and so I really enjoyed it today. Tomorrow I want to change what didn't go that well today and I want to improve my performance and I'm looking forward to the competition", told Kobayashi.
Kobayashi leads the overall ranking of the "Titisee-Neustadt 5" 5.7 points ahead of Dawid Kubacki and 9.7 points ahead of Stephan Leyhe.
Best German today was Stephan Leyhe in fifth. Even more would have been possible for the Willingen-native who is living and training in the Black Forest as he was second in the first round but then lost some meters in the final. Leyhe landed at 134.5 m and had to be satisfied with the fifth place. But he is in a strong shape right now so it seems to be only a matter of time until the 28-year-old can win his first World Cup.
Youngster Constantin Schmid tied for fifth with Leyhe. Daniel Andre Tande was the best Norwegian in seventh, followed by the two Poles Kamil Stoch and Piotr Zyla in eighth and ninth. Karl Geiger has been struggling on this hill from the start and was 12th.
In the overall World Cup ranking, Karl Geiger remains in the lead with 841 points, ahead of Stefan Kraft (779 points) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (715 points). Dawid Kubacki is fourth with 664 points.
The second competition in Titisee-Neustadt starts on Sunday at 3:15 pm CET.
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