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Pius Paschke after his victory
Photo: Philipp Schmidli / EPA
Ski jumping veteran Pius Paschke has achieved his first victory in the World Cup at the age of 33 and nurtured hopes for a successful Four Hills Tournament. Paschke jumped 135 meters twice in Engelberg and improved from sixth place to the top thanks to his excellent second attempt. Just a few weeks ago, late starter Paschke had achieved his first ever individual podium. Behind the German, Marius Lindvik from Norway and Stefan Kraft from Austria finished second and third.
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"Hats off to Pius. I don't believe it," said ex-ski jumper Severin Freund on ZDF. The victim of the second round was Andreas Wellinger, who was passed through from first to twelfth place. Paschke's victory was the third German success in a row, after Karl Geiger had recently won both competitions in Klingenthal. In seven competitions, the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher achieved a total of nine podium finishes.
Hopes for a successful tour grow at the DSV
Paschke is thus the oldest premiere winner in World Cup history and the oldest German winner of an individual competition. The DSV Eagles last celebrated three individual victories in a row in the winter of 2017/18, when Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger won in Nizhny Tagil and Friday in Titisee-Neustadt.
Not all German athletes did as well as Paschke. Philipp Raimund was disqualified after the first round because of a suit that did not comply with the rules.
Geiger (124 and 128 meters) in 20th place and Stephan Leyhe (122.5 and 123.5 meters) in 26th place fell short of expectations. "I didn't get into the flight system cleanly. It wasn't planned that way," said Geiger. The singles on Sunday (16 p.m. / TV: ZDF and Eurosport) is the dress rehearsal for the tour, which starts on December 29 in Oberstdorf.
kjo/dpa