A heavy crash by David Siegel has overshadowed the victory of the German ski jumpers in the team competition in Zakopane, Poland. The 22-year-old could not stand on his feet after his long jump in the second round at 142.5 meters and had to be brought with a stretcher from the spout. Siegel was taken to the hospital with severe pain, but at first there was no precise diagnosis.
In the end, Karl Geiger, Markus Eisenbichler, Siegel and Stephan Leyhe were 5.5 centimeters ahead of the second-placed Austrians. Third place went to the hosts. Japan for World Cup Dominator Ryoyu Kobayashi reached fifth place.
The tour-wide Eisenbichler had jumped just before the seal already to the hill record of 143 meters, then shortened the jury apparently not sufficient start. Even after Siegel's fall, the chase continued, and Pole Dawid Kubacki improved Eisenbichler's mark by half a meter.
"It's extremely bitter, it was such a great competition of this young team," Schuster said on ARD: "I do not want to anticipate, but we have probably lost one athlete for the rest of the season, because something is probably broken in the right knee David could have been very supportive of us for the World Cup. "
Schuster blamed the jury. "Of course it was David's landing mistake too, but it was a big mistake for the jury not to shorten it," said the Austrian, who was angry with the officials discussing FIS race director Walter Hofer.
Siegel, last in fifth in Val di Fiemme, had his first team competition in the World Cup in Zakopane. Richard Freitag was not nominated by national coach Werner Schuster. Thus Friday missed for the first time since March 2014 in Lahti a team competition in the World Cup.