Halvor Egner Granerud dominates to win Four Hills opener in Oberstdorf ahead of Piotr Zyla and Dawid Kubacki

Halvor Egner Granerud delivered a commanding performance to win the first 2022/23 Four Hills event in Oberstdorf.

He went last in the final session and produced a sublime jump to become Norway’s first winner in Oberstdorf since 2012.

Granerud finished on 312.4 points, well clear of Polish duo Piotr Zyla (299 points) and Dawid Kubacki (294.9 points).

“What an amazing start to this year’s tournament,” said Eurosport expert Martin Schmitt.

“Granerud totally deserved it. He was the best in training, in qualification and in the competition. His jumping is so strong and impressive.”

Home favourite Karl Geiger looked like he might get a podium place but just missed out as he finished fourth with 293.6 points. Stefan Kraft came fifth with 292 points.

Defending Four Hills champion Ryoyu Kobayashi didn’t challenge as he was outside the top 10.

Granerud was the standout performer at a raucous Oberstdorf, where the home fans made plenty of noise on their return after two years away.

After leading the way in qualifying, Granerud nailed a 142.5m jump in the first round that was just a metre short of the hill record.

Changing wind conditions made life tricky for some jumpers and Geiger and fellow German Andreas Wellinger both took advantage of a gate change with big jumps that put them in contention for podium places.

But again it was all about Granerud in the final round.

Zyla might have thought he had put the pressure on by moving top of the leaderboard with the penultimate jump but Granerud responded in style to take victory.

The second Four Hills event is at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, with qualification on December 31 ahead of the main competition on New Year’s Day. Then it’s on to Innsbruck, with qualifying on January 3 and the main event the next day, before the finale in Bischofshofen on January 5 and January 6.

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