Dawid Kubacki is the first winner 2021 year.
Dawid Kubacki won the traditional New Year's competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Friday ahead of the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud and Piotr Żyła. Kubacki decided to take this extremely exciting competition in difficult conditions with an amazing jump to a new hill record 144 m in the final round.
“That second jump was really good after all, I was waiting for it. It's a great feeling, if you can make such a jump at the right moment” – said Kubacki after the win. The Pole is currently fourth in the overall classification of the Four Hills Tournament, just losing 8,6 punktu do lidera Halvora Egnera Graneruda. Karl Geiger, which was the fifth today (four points behind Granerud) and Kamil Stoch (6,7 point behind Granerud) are in second and third place.
Referring to the general classification of the Four Hills, previous season's champion Dawid Kubacki explained: "Now it's only halfway, anything can still happen. I don't focus on results, only on his jumps".
Today, Kubacki won 5 victory in the World Cup, first this season.
Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud took the lead in the overall 4-hill classification from Karl Geiger, taking second place today. On the Olympic hill, he once again proved his fantastic form and took second place behind the outstanding Dawid Kubacki. “I'm very happy with my jumps today, were good. It didn't matter, that I had to wait quite a long time for the second jump, I think, that we can all handle it, it happens sometimes” – Granerud said.
With Piotr Żyła and Kamil Stoch third and fourth in today's New Year's event, the competition was a triumph for the Polish team of coach Michał Dolezal. Three athletes in the top four of this traditional competition, it's amazing.
Philipp Aschenwald was the best Austrian in sixth place, Markus Eisenbichler finished seventh and is now 23,5 behind Granerud in the general classification. “I'm a little disappointed, but it was a difficult competition, were also of a very high standard, this is not typical of Garmisch. I know, that I'm doing better, but I didn't make any major mistakes today either”, Eisenbichler said after the competition.
The 4-Hills-Tournament continues on Saturday with training and qualifying in Innsbruck.