Halvor Egner Granerud won the inaugural competition of the Four Hills 71 course in Oberstdorf. The Norwegian managed the longest jump of the two runs on Thursday. He won with 13.4 points, ahead of Poland’s Piotr Zila and his compatriot and World Cup leader Dawid Kobacki. With Stefan Kraft fifth and Daniel Chovenig eighth, two Austrians rounded out the top ten.
In front of 25,000 spectators, Kraft attacked in the deciding round with a jump of 138m. He improved by two places from his seventh position at the break. The only winner, Granrud, topped Salzburg with 139m, with Michael Haibock (12) and Manuel Wittner (13) finishing in midfield, ahead of Jan Höhrl (16) and Philipp Achenwald (23).
Leitner misses the second round
After the first round, Granerud was already ahead of Zyla and Kubacki with an impressive jump of 142.5 metres. Kraft jumped to seventh place as the best Austrian.
Clemens Leitner ranked 35th (109.0m) and was the only ÖSV eagle to miss the second round. “I’m very disappointed. I had a lot of jumps in the top 10, it hurts more than I could have imagined,” said the Tyrolean 11th qualifier. “My apprenticeship paid off, I’m not going to be early in ski jumping anymore.” Germany’s Marcus Eisenbichler, who finished second in the 2018-2019 Tour, also fell by the wayside as a loser in a duel in difficult and often changing wind conditions. (appa)
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