Four Hills Tournament

Hörl leads ÖSV quadruple victory in Innsbruck qualification!

What a strong qualifying performance from Jan Hörl!(Bild: GEPA)

What a red-white-red colored day at the Four Hills Tournament: The qualification for the Innsbruck Bergisel competition has brought a quadruple Austrian success!

Jan Hörl, runner-up in the Salzburg Tournament, took first place with a 128-meter jump, just ahead of Stefan Kraft, who has been weakening recently. They were followed by the Tyrolean Stephan Embacher, who came third overall, and the Carinthian Tour title defender Daniel Tschofenig. The previous dominator Domen Prevc was only 30th.

8500 spectators had already come to the Olympic hill on the qualifying day and saw a strong performance by the ÖSV guard. Hörl had missed the first of two training jumps, ultimately distancing Kraft (127.5) by 0.9 points. "It was a very successful day for me when the one lights up twice - mega cool," he said. Hörl put Prevc's mere 112 meters into perspective. "It was very, very difficult at the end." The World Cup leader had the worst conditions and received 26.9 wind compensation points.

Prevc wasn't worried about the competition on Sunday (1.30 pm), but admitted that his jump wasn't that good either. On the other hand, Kraft was satisfied with his attempt after things didn't go well for him on the bakken in Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. "It felt very cool again," said the man from Salzburg. "The skis did what I wanted them to do. It feels good in my heart and in my head when I see that I can jump with the best. We've already tried a lot of different approaches to get me there again."

The result:

(Bild: www.fis-ski.com)

(Bild: www.fis-ski.com)

Tschofenig: "Maybe that will make him think!"
 Embacher confirmed his good form with a 125-meter set. "It was another good jump." Timing was a bit of a problem, he said, or rather there was a lack of small things. Tschofenig spoke of a better jump again: "The direction is there." The overall World Cup winner had virtually missed his chance to successfully defend his title in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the direction of Prevc, he said: "Maybe that will make him think." Kraft believes that Prevc's earlier turn on Sunday could be a factor: "Maybe we'll catch a good phase."

Manuel Fettner (7th), Jonas Schuster (20th), Maximilian Ortner (24th), Niklas Bachlinger (34th), Clemens Aigner (42nd) and Clemens Leitner (48th) are also in the knockout duels of the top 50 on Sunday. Julijan Smid missed out on qualification in 52nd place by 3.7 points. In the overall standings, Prevc is 35 points ahead of Hörl and 41.3 points ahead of Embacher.

Stecher has high hopes for Hörl
ÖSV sports director Mario Stecher has high hopes for Hörl in particular for the third of the four tour competitions: "If you know how he can ski jump, we have high hopes for him. With two jumps to the point, he can stand up to Domen Prevc. But that's the prerequisite at the moment." And Florian Liegl, Sporting Director of Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined, had already identified the Bergisel as a secret of success for his compatriots before the qualification: "The local ski jumps suit us very well. As a team, we are very well positioned."