The Austrian team wins the inauguration of the season in Wisła
The Austrian ski jumping team won the first competition of the World Cup season 2020/21 in Wisła (POL). With Michael Hayboeck, Philippem Aschenwaldem, Daniel Huber and Stefan Kraft, the team of the new coach Andreas Widhoelzl overtook Germany and Poland.
It was a good start to the season for ski jumpers in Wisła.
In good weather and without fans on the Adam-Małysz ski jumping hill, the Austrian team achieved its first victory in the first World Cup competition with Andreas Widhoelzl as coach. “It was obviously a very good day, I was a little nervous, because it was my first competition as a coach. Now I am very pleased with the performances of the players, all four showed solid performances in the competition and I didn't try to do anything more, which was the basis of today's victory. Can't wait for tomorrow's individual competition, because we have two more contestants here, who are also able to jump at the same level “, said Andreas Widhoelzl, of course, satisfied after the competition.
Team Germany with Constantin Schmid, Piusem Paschke, With Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler, she took second place behind the Austrians, who won in total 1078,0 points, just losing 8,7 point to today's winners. Head coach Stefan Horngacher said after the competition: "I'm very happy, we fought for the win and in the end it was really close. The conditions were great today, who must have jumped very well, to be among the best. As a team, we can take advantage of today's result.".
“It was exciting right to the end, we could have won today too. Feeling, that we're competing again and I'm on the podium is amazing. Happy birthday to Stephan Leyhe at home, let's hope, that his knee is fine", Karl Geiger said , who is one of the top contenders for the world championship title this winter.
The third place went to the hosts of Poland. Piotr Zyla, Klemens Muranka, Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch jumped at a high level: “It was a very high-level competition, we gave our best as a team. Third place is a great success for us this winter in the first competition. I personally struggled with extreme headaches during the practice round and the competition, it was a tough fight for me and i hope so, that tomorrow I will feel better”.
With sum 1061,5 point, Poland was only 7,8 a point behind second place and had a real chance of winning until the very end.
The fourth place was taken by the team of Norway, followed by Japan, Slovenia, Russia and Switzerland.