The first match of the ski jumping world cup for the 2015/16 season has highlighted the supremacy of Germany and Slovenia. The four Slovenian Eagles – Domen Prevc, Jurij Tepeš, Anže Lanišek and Peter Prevc – had still been in the lead after the sixth out of eight jumps, but to the delight of the home crowd gathered among the 8,000 spectators at Klingenthal Richard Freitag and Severin Freund turned the tables with Germany’s last two jumps.

Dream debut of youngest among Prevc brothers
The German team, with Andreas Wellinger in Andreas Wank completing the quartet, has kicked off the new season in the best possible way, while also defending last year’s win at the opening match of the season. The Slovenians have shown that the entire team is in good form. The performance of Domen Prevc was particularly enthralling – with 16 years, 5 months and 17 days, the debutant to the World Cup has become Slovenia’s youngest ski jumper to climb the winners’ podium. The youngest among the Prevc brothers jumped 132.5 and 132.0 metres, the fourth best result among individuals combined, while his elder brother Peter was second best jumper (139.0 and 132.0 m). The remaining two jumpers in the top four were Freitag and Freund.

Freitag beat Lanišek by 10 metres
The first round ended with Slovenia winning a 13.5 point advantage to Germany, while during the final round the latter won the competition through beating Slovenia by 20.4 points. However, the gap between Slovenia and Austria in third place became much wider – 67.3 points! The seventh series of jumps was decisive: Anže Lanišek of Slovenia jumped 128.5 m while Germany’s jumper, Richard Freitag, took every advantage of better conditions and landed at 138.0 metres, which brought a 12 point lead to Germany. In final’s last jump Freund beat Peter Prevc by four metres, cementing Germany’s first place.

To. G., MMC; translated by K. Z.