Marius Lindvik starts the new year with maiden World Cup win

Norway's Marius Lindvik claimed a sensational win in the New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The 21-year-old, whose best result so far was the third place in Klingenthal three weeks ago, posted a fantastic jump of 143.5 m in the first round and then defended this lead in the final. Karl Geiger of Germany and Poland's Dawid Kubacki were second and third in this high-level competition.

The New Year's event was held in perfect conditions in front of 21 000 fans in the sold-out Olympic stadium in Partenkirchen. Marius Lindvik already provided the highlight in the first round when he equaled the hill record of Simon Ammann (SUI) with his 143.5 m jump that earned him a lead of over seven points. "Yesterday I was struggling a bit here on this hill, but today I figured out what I needed to do. It's special to win my first ever World Cup competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I'm very happy", said Lindvik.

Karl Geiger showed yet another top performance and came in second. The Oberstdorf-native confirmed his second place in the 4-Hills opener in an impressive manner and is now only 6.3 points behind 4-hills overall leader Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan.  Geiger said after the competition: "It was a perfect start of the new year, it was a lot of fun. It was not that easy today, but the jumps were good. The crowd was loud after Ryoyu's jump, so I thought it's possible to jump far and I wanted to do the same. I was able to do just that and I'm absolutely satisfied with the competition and the position I'm in before the next two competitions."

Poland's Dawid Kubacki can also achieve great things at the 4-Hills-Tournament. Just like Geiger, Kubacki was also on the podium in the first two competitions of this Tournament. "It was a really close competition and I'm very happy to be on the podium. I'm happy that my hard work pays off and that I can show good jumps now. I only focus on my jumps and the next competition, not on the overall ranking. I have to focus on the hill to jump well and improve my jumps then I can also be among the best in the overall ranking", said the Pole.

Best Austrian today was Daniel Huber on a strong sixth place. After this performance in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Huber will be even more disappointed about his result in Oberstdorf, where he failed to qualify for the second round and lost all chances on a good overall result.

It wasn't a good day for Austria's Stefan Kraft, who was only 13th today, more than 25 points behind Marius Lindvik. In the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament, Kraft is now more than 15 points behind Lindvik in fifth. "Of course I'm not happy. In the first round, I attacked too much, in the second round it was a solid jump. I didn't find the right mix today", Kraft said on Austrian TV.

The fight of the overall ranking is extremely exciting: Ryoyu Kobayashi leads with 587.2 points, followed by Karl Geiger (580.9 points) and Dawid Kubacki (578.7 points). Marius Lindvik gained some ground and is now fourth (568.3 points).

The teams will now have another day off before it's time for the training (11:45 am CET) and the qualification (2 pm CET) in Innsbruck (AUT) on Friday.

Full results
Overall ranking

Here's what the athletes had to say after the competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen:

Philipp Aschenwald: I had better jumps yesterday, but I still wanted to make a second one. Now I want to repeat the good jumps from Garmisch in Austria. Of course, you also need a good day in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, we want to be among the best as a team. We will give our best. There's still a lot possible in the overall ranking, there are four more competition jumps left.

Michael Hayboeck: When I woke up this morning I asked myself how I should jump at all today. My health is improving, but I'm still lacking strength. Nevertheless, I was in the second round and won the duel, so that's positive.

Daniel Andre Tande: I don't know what happened in the second round. Actually it felt like it was a good jump, but obviously I made a mistake in the inrun or at the take-off. That's how it is. I feel that I was jumping much better today than in Oberstdorf, if I can continue like this for the rest of the Tour then it's good. I like the hill in Innsbruck a lot and hopefully, I can use that to my advantage.

Kamil Stoch: I have some mixed feelings about today. I did everything I could, but I also made some mistakes, especially in the first round. That's why I wasn't jumping as far as a wanted. But I have to accept that and keep my head up. In Innsbruck I want to show my best jumps and enjoy what I'm doing.

Peter Prevc: This competition was quite similar to the one in Oberstdorf. I made a mistake in the first round again, the second round was much better. All of the competitors are really close, so small things can make a big difference. I'm really looking forward to Innsbruck and Bischofshofen, I could jump every day.

Killian Peier: I could show very good jumps today. There's still some room for improvement, but in Oberstdorf it didn't work at all. Now I gained self-confidence again and that's a lot of fun, especially in front of such a crowd in a packed stadium. That's amazing.

Stefan Kraft: Of course, that's not satisfying. The feeling was not right today, in the first round I did a bit too much, in the second round it was too less. The preparation was not perfect due to the health problems, but actually I was feeling good. Now I'm looking forward to the day off tomorrow, but it's a shame that it didn't work well here.

Karl Geiger: It was a perfect start of the new year, it was a lot of fun. It was not that easy today, but the jumps were good. The crowd was loud after Ryoyu's jump, so I thought it's possible to jump far and I wanted to do the same. I wanted to focus on my jump and I knew that the conditions must be okay because he jumped far. I only focus on myself and I don't think about what might be on Ryoyu's mind. In the end, we will then see who comes out on top.

Ryoyu Kobayashi: It was a tight competition and then it can always go either way. I'm already looking forward to the events in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. Tomorrow is not a day off, it's a traveling day.