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The Italian Giovanni Bresadola is being treated

Photo: Darko Bandic / dpa

World champion Timi Zajc was wearing a sling around his injured arm, Giovanni Bresadola was already on the way to the hospital: After a series of falls in the last team competition of the season, Stefan Horngacher almost didn't care about the poor German result in ski flying. »Some of the people down there limp out. I'm glad that we stayed injury-free," said the national ski jumping coach on ZDF after finishing sixth among the nine teams.

On the huge Letalnica ski jump, Andreas Wellinger, Karl Geiger, Stephan Leyhe and Pius Paschke collected 726.6 points; victory went to Austria (803.8 points) ahead of hosts Slovenia (793.3) and Norway (770.6). Rising wind prevented a second run – and possibly further falls.

Three jumpers lost their balance after landing early on Saturday, but at least Decker Dean (USA) got off lightly. Team world champion Luisa Görlich and Finn Eetu Nousiainen had already fallen on Thursday and both suffered a torn cruciate ligament. The Italian Bresadola is now facing a similar diagnosis. »The knee doesn't look good. I wish him all the best,” said Geiger.

The Slovenian world champion Zajc fell on his right arm - it remained unclear whether he would have competed in the second round. The ski flying party in Planica, which had started so furiously on Friday with Peter Prevc's home win, was definitely put down. “It went haywire today,” said ZDF expert Severin Freund.

Soft landing slope

The main problem was the landing slope, which was difficult to prepare due to the frost at night and the high temperatures during the day. »You can see the problem especially on the left side. “Thank God we don’t jump that far to the left,” said Horngacher.

Sixth place was still a mediocre result; Germany had won bronze with the same line-up at the World Championships in Kulm at the end of January. Now the podium with 726.6 points was a good 36 meters away. "That was not that good. “We can’t get the speed to fly here,” says Horngacher.

Only Paschke was convincing with 221.0 meters, in an individual ranking this would have meant sixth place - ahead of world champion Stefan Kraft. “Pius was very good, although he had a difficult situation with the fall in front of him,” said Horngacher. Geiger (202.5 meters), Leyhe (196.5 meters) and Wellinger (209.5 meters), however, fell short of expectations.

The victory went to the ÖSV quartet of Kraft, Daniel Huber, Michael Hayböck and Daniel Tschofenig. Huber also showed the longest flight of the day with 244.0 m - ahead of Zajc, who couldn't stand his 242.5 m.

The season ends on Sunday (9.30 a.m./TV: ZDF and Eurosport) with a final individual competition. Only the 30 best in the overall World Cup are allowed to start, from Germany these are Wellinger, Paschke, Geiger and Leyhe.

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