Kubacki in Bergisel-Quali ahead, Granerud weakened

The Norwegian, who is comfortably leading in the overall standings of the Four Hills Tournament with a lead of around 15 meters, ended up in 13th place after a jump on 116 m in light drizzle. The first pursuer, Dawid Kubacki from Poland, on the other hand, won the Innsbruck preliminary round with the best jump of the day (128 m). his compatriot Kamil Stoch.

This also pleased Thomas Thurnbichler from Tyrol, who has been head coach in Poland since this season. “I’m very happy. Dawid will go to bed with a lot of self-confidence and maybe Halvor will start thinking a bit,” said Thurnbichler in the finish area.

With a view to the overall tour standings, Kubacki still has to be “trusted with everything”. Although the gap of 26.8 points is large, it can “go very quickly, especially at Bergisel”. Granerud, who gambled away the tour as the overall leader in Innsbruck two years ago, jumped too aggressively on Tuesday and now has a task to think about, explained his Austrian coach Alexander Stöckl.

Kraft expects “fair and stable” jumping

After the disappointment in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, world champion Stefan Kraft was unscathed in sixth place (121 m) – ex aequo with Jan Hörl (123 m). All three jumps on the training and qualifying day were “very okay”, “I’m up there and I know what I have to do,” stressed Kraft. The man from Salzburg was still convinced of Granerud before the competition on Wednesday (1.30 p.m. / live ORF 1). “I don’t think he’s still on fire,” said Kraft about the Norwegian, who also dominated the first training session. After last year’s wind-related cancellation, the weather forecasts promise “very fair and stable” jumping, as Kraft predicted.

The German Karl Geiger, in fifth place overall, caused the negative surprise in front of 5,500 spectators. After a 108 meter hop, the man from Oberstdorf missed qualifying for the top 50 by 0.2 points as 51st of only 60 jumpers. “That was, whoa, hard,” said the 29-year-old, completely shocked. “Really bad that it’s not even enough for the top 50.” The Tyrolean Stefan Horngacher, national coach of the German ski jumpers, was served. “It’s difficult now. I didn’t expect that,” said the 53-year-old. “The Bergisel does not forgive mistakes.”

Kraft also sympathized with his competitor. “You can see how quickly that can happen. That almost happened to me in Oberstdorf,” recalled the world record holder. “The Bergisel likes to bite,” added Daniel Tschofenig, seventh best Austrian in the tour ranking. The Junior World Champion finished 12th behind Michael Hayböck (10th). Like Kraft, Tschofenig struggled with the slow track in mild temperatures of 7 degrees Celsius, but local hero Manuel Fettner (14th) had the biggest problems.

The 37-year-old was already struggling with the track at the start of the tour in Oberstdorf, warmer temperatures are not at all good for the Olympic silver medalist in Beijing. “Unfortunately, a catastrophe for me. It’s a huge disappointment when you come to the Bergisel with anticipation and then have to go down with such a track,” said Fettner annoyed. “In my opinion, the track has cooled down far too little. I’m not a technician, but you have to call the people in Garmisch to see what they have set. It was just as warm there and it was perfectly hard,” explained the veteran.

Max Obergruber, OC boss of the Bergisel ski jumping, was surprised by the APA that the inrun track had been cooled down to minus 12 degrees as usual. In any case, Fettner does not expect any improvement in the competition in front of more than 16,000 spectators. “No chance, I’ve been trying to change that for 15 years. Wait, bite through and look forward to Bischofshofen,” said the Tyrolean. With Clemens Leitner (33rd) and Philipp Aschenwald (44th), all seven Austrians did their duty. The national group of the ÖSV-Adler will only start at the Epiphany Jumping in Bischofshofen and at the ski flying at the Kulm.