Germans jump to clear team win in Zakopane
Jan 25, 2020·Ski Jumping
The German ski jumpers (Constantin Schmid, Markus Eisenbichler, Stephan Leyhe, Karl Geiger) won the team competition in Zakopane on Saturday. The athletes of head coach Stefan Horngacher scored a total of 1182.2 points with their eight jumps.
The second place went to the team of Norway (Marius Lindvik, Robert Johansson, Daniel Andre Tande, Johann Andre Forfang) with 1142.2 points, followed by Slovenia (Anze Lanisek, Domen Prevc, Timi Zajc, Peter Prevc) with 1125.0 points.
The surprisingly strong team of Germany came in 40 points ahead of Norway and 75.2 points ahead of Slovenia. In the first two team events this season, the Germans came in only fifth (Wisla) and sixth (Klingenthal). Today's win was the 16th for a German team in the FIS World Cup.
"I'm really happy about the result. It's always nice when you stand on top of the podium. I didn't take part in many team competitions yet, so I'm happy about the result and my jumps", said Youngster Constantin Schmid, for whom this was the first win in the World Cup.
Norway came in second with tight team performance, only their final jumper Johann Andre Forfang didn't have his best day. "It was a tough competition for me, the other guys managed to step up their game compared to yesterday. I did my two worst jumps of the weekend today, so it's not the best feeling for me. But the German guys were really strong today so I'm not sure if my best jumps would have made a big difference. Today was a good day for us and coming in second is a good result", Forfang explained.
Peter Prevc of the third-placed Slovenian team said: "It's always nice to stand on the podium in a team competition. We did a good job, with some mistakes, but the result is really good and so we will sleep well tonight."
2.5 points behind Slovenia, Japan finished fourth. Yukiya Sato of Japan had the best jump of the day with outstanding 147 m he improved the hill record, held by local hero Dawid Kubacki, by 3.5 m.
Poland came in fifth, followed by the Austrians, who were considered the top favorites for today's competition but could not live up to the expectations. Stefan Kraft suffered a minor injury yesterday and was not in his best shape in today's competition.
25000 fans in the sold-out arena and 20000 in front of the gates provided a special atmosphere in Zakopane, a similar crowd is expected for Sunday's individual competition which starts at 4 pm CET.
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