The German ski jumpers took a home win at the opener of the new World Cup season in Klingenthal. Markus Eisenbichler, Richard Freitag, Andreas Wellinger and Severin Freund won with a total of 1098.0 points ahead of Japan (1068.9 points) and Norway (1061.2 points).

Strong performance of Eisenbichler

The Germans showed a balanced team performance, with Markus Eisenbichler standing out. After 131 m in the first round he jumped on 142 m in the final. Local hero Richard Freitag jumped on 132 m and 136.5 m, Andreas Wellinger posted very good jumps on 133.5 m and 139.5 m, Ski Flying World Champion Severin Freund secured the win with 130.5 m and 135 m.

Eisenbichler was happy afterwards: “We are very satisfied. Honestly, I didn't expect to jump that well today. Although it went really well for me over the past weeks, this was a surprise. Tomorrow I want to do my best again and I hope that I can also achieve a good result. The conditions were fantastic today, there was a little wind, but it was always fair."

Norwegians close behind Japan

The Japanese team with Reruhi Shimizu, Daiki Ito, Taku Takeuchi and Noriaki Kasai had a lead of 0.4 points over Germany after the first round and also had no jump below the 130 m mark. Shimizu jumped on 137 m and 130 m, Daiki Ito landed at 133.5 m and 135 m, veteran Noriaki Kasai showed jumps on 136.5 m and 136 m, Takeuchi jumped on 135 m and 134.5 m. Reruhi Shimizu said after the competition: “I'm not satisfied with my jumps today, but it was a good result for our team. If I can improve my performance tomorrow, even a podium finish might be possible in the individual competition."

Thanks to Anders Fannemel, who posted jumps on 136 m and 144 m, the Norwegians were able to keep up with the best for a long time. The jumps of Rune Velta (130.5 m and 129.5 m), Anders Jacobsen (129 m and 127 m) and Anders Bardal (133.5 m and 137 m), earned the second place for the team. "We are satisfied with the result. There are still some details that we have to work on, but we are on the right track. The conditions were good today, of course they were not exactly the same for every athlete. We want to be one of the best teams in the world and we are working hard for that”, told Rune Velta.

Surprising result for Finland

The Finnish team, with Jarkko Maeaettae, Sami Niemi, Anssi Koivuranta and Lauri Asikainen, scored 1018.3 points and came in on a surprising fourth place. Asikainen showed an outstanding performance with 141 m and 141.5 m. The fifth place went to Slovenia, with Jurij Tepes, Robert Kranjec, Jernej Damjan and Peter Prevc. They reached a total of 1015.6 points and the lack of consistency prevented them from achieving a better result.

Behind the Czech Republic and Switzerland, the Austrian team finished on a disappointing eighth place in the first competition under their new head coach Heinz Kuttin. Only Stefan Kraft was able to show a good performance today. The Austrians closely qualified for the final round with only 0.1 points ahead of Poland, that had to compete without double Olympic Champion Kamil Stoch, who suffered an injury during warm-up on Friday and was replaced by Jan Ziobro.

The teams of Russia, Italy and the USA also failed to make the cut for the final round.

This season's first individual competition follows on Sunday, at 11:30 am CET.