Poland’s Dawid Kubacki produces longest jump of qualification at Four Hills event at Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Poland’s Dawid Kubacki set the course record in the Four Hills event at Garmisch-Partenkirchen one year ago, and he returned to that form on Saturday as he produced the longest jump of qualifying.

Kubacki, who finished third in Oberstdorf earlier this week in the first event of the Four Hills, set himself up as the jumper to beat on Sunday.

Slovenia’s Anze Lanisek and his compatriot Timi Zajc rounded out the top three.

The second Four Hills event of the season had been expected to be a friendly place for Karl Geiger to show himself as a true contender, but instead the German finished down in 30th place.

Geiger had been fourth in the opening Four Hills event, but failed to bring that same form to bear.

Germany has been waiting 21 years for a local to win this event, and Geiger was widely tipped to break that streak.

“In general, I didn’t start that well today,” he said. “It wasn’t a clean blade. That also has its reasons, we have to do better tomorrow.”

In happier news for the hosts, 10 Germans in total managed to qualify for tomorrow’s event.

Philipp Raimund continued his strong start to the tour with a 9th placed finish, despite poor conditions and a strong tailwind.

Constantin Schmid finished just behind Raimund, while Stephan Leyhe was a little further back in 14th.

Former world champion Daniel-Andre Tande surprisingly failed to qualify for the main event, while David Siegel, Finn Braun and Simon Spiewok (disqualified) also missed the cut.

The Four Hills tournament had been threatened by poor conditions and lack of snow in the build up, but was given the green light in mid-December following a cold change.

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