Germany hails ‘surprise’ Mixed Team World Cup title

Germany rounded off the busiest day of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup to season by claiming the Mixed Team title in Lake Placid (USA).

The four-strong line-up of Anges Reisch and Selina Freitag, who had finished second and third respectively in the women’s World Cup earlier in the day, together with Philipp Raimund and Andreas Wellinger, delivered an impressive showing in upstate New York.

Despite fighting inevitable fatigue, after numerous qualifying and World Cup finals contests over the previous 48 hours, the eight nations delivered a high-class and highly entertaining finale.

Germany attained a combined score of 963.6 from their eight jumps to claim victory ahead of Norway (950.8) and Austria (941.8).

“Definitely (it was a surprise result), especially for me after my first competition in the morning I’m really surprised with my two jumps in the evening,” admitted Raimund, who had placed 21^st in the first men’s individual World Cup contest earlier on Saturday. 

“The girls did an amazing job all weekend and we knew what they could do tonight, but we all, including Andreas (Wellinger) did a great job today and I’m really happy with the rest for the team.”

Despite the busy schedule, the winners – Johann Andrea Forfang (NOR) and Nika Prevc (SLO) – together with their fellow podium finishers returned for the team contest, which featured eight nations.

Germany made the strongest start and maintained their lead with a series of impressive leaps from Reisch, Raimund, Freitag and Wellinger.

In the sixth round though it was Austria who topped the standings, following a brilliant jump by Olympic team gold medal-winning ski jumper Jan Hoerl (AUT). 

The Norwegians were second at that stage, with Germany third. 

They, together with Austria continued their three-way battle for the podium places, with Slovenia unable to offer a significant threat despite the presence of Prevc siblings Nika and Domen, as well as Anze Lanisek, in their line-up.

After the penultimate round, which had seen Freitag’s top jump of 126.5m put her nation back on top of the standings, it came down to a contest between men’s World Cup leader Daniel Tschofenig (AUT), Forfang (NOR) and Wellinger (GER).

Four Hills Tournament winner Tschofenig gave Austria the lead, but first Forfang and then Wellinger delivered the required scores to move ahead.

It gave Germany their second Mixed Team success of the current campaign, following victory in the season-opening World Cup event in Lillehammer (NOR).

The women have now completed their Lake Placid World Cup programme, but the men’s field will return for one final showdown in upstate New York on Sunday morning. 

“I took a lot of confidence for tomorrow and I’m feeling good,” said Raimund.

“The jumps were good and I think tomorrow will be a great day.”

FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Lake Placid (USA):

9 February
10.00 - Competition Start Men’s LH

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