The 25-year-old won the second Engelberg World Cup after second place on the previous day in difficult and changing conditions, 12.2 points ahead of the previous day’s German winner and World Cup leader Karl Geiger. The best Austrian was Daniel Huber in eighth place, he lost 28.7 points to the winner.
“It has been very good to write to you,” said Huber after his best individual result of the season so far. “Once halfway to confirm the performance. I am mega-happy that I have hopefully ended the curse. Today was an important step in the direction that I get the realization that patience is worthwhile.” The Salzburg man was at a disadvantage in the second run in the Austrian package with Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig by tail wind, but with 128.5 meters avoided a fall to some extent.
Tschofenig with the best result of the season
With Tschofenig in tenth place in his best result of the season, a second Austrian made it into the top ten, the 19-year-old was ÖSV-best in fifth after the first jump. “That feels brutally liberating,” said the youngster. “In the second (run, note) the nervousness played a part. It was a good jump, but you can tell that everything is not that easy anymore. I’ll work on that.”
Wisla winner Hörl dropped from sixth to twelfth place, whereas Huber only deteriorated slightly from seventh position. “The old mistake,” commented the Salzburg man on his unsuccessful second attempt. “I would like to accelerate too much in this position and then the center of gravity is no longer sufficient. There is too little energy in there.” At least Hörl scored well, Ulrich Wohlgenannt (31st) and Philipp Aschenwald (35th), however, were left empty-handed.
“It was very difficult to jump”
Klingenthal winner Stefan Kraft had a bit more luck with the wind after placing 23rd at halftime in the final heat and was still in 14th position. Manuel Fettner finished 27th . “In the first I had a lot of tailwind and a small mistake when jumping. Then you are quickly 23 again. In the second it was maybe a bit of a risky jump, but you have to take risks.”
Kobayashi, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be unbalancing at the moment. The Asian competed in the last three competitions on ranks 1, 2 and 1. From the second intermediate place he overtook Killian Peier after jumps of 132.5 and 136.5 m, the Swiss finished fourth like the day before. 0.3 points behind Geiger, the Norwegian Marius Lindvik got the last podium after a 138.5 m set. In the World Cup, Geiger is 98 points ahead of Kobayashi, Kraft is 136 points behind.
Source: Nachrichten
