Philippe Raimondt pushes for next level – national coach Stephan Horngacher praises: “Philippe is very strong”

Philip Raimond leaped wildly through the ice of Lake Placid, and could not be caught.

With his surprise second-place finish at the end of a tense North American tour, Raimondt also beat Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger on Sunday – with only Austria's top star Stefan Kroft preventing the German from a thrilling victory.

“Second place last night in the Super Team with Andy gave me a lot of motivation,” said Raimondt, who flew from fourth in half time to the podium with a second dream flight of 135.0m in his third competition in less than 26 hours.

Last year's fifth place in Rusno is the passionate moustached man's best result to date. In the Continental Cup, the “second league”, he won two matches in 2022 in Vikersund and Ruka. But Lake Placid is a different house number.

With 278.4 points, it was two meters short of Raymond Croft (281.6) and a surprise win. Raimund was joined by Slovenia's Lovro Koz, who had tied the day before, in second place.

“Philip was very strong, especially the second jump. We can go to Japan satisfied with this result,” national coach Stefan Horngacher said of Alka's “flying moustache”.

With a strong second jump, Wellinger moved up from 16th to sixth, avoiding a painful setback in the fight for the overall World Cup. With his seventh win of the season, Kraft extended his lead in the World Cup standings.

Carl Geiger missed the second round in 37th place on his 31st birthday on Sunday, as did Engelberg winner Puis Paschke (35th). “The jump was not good. It was rough and I changed my mind,” said the five-time world champion.

Geiger, Raimond and Wellinger flew for several hours to analyze the competition: after a 6,000 km journey from Willingen to New York, 14 (!) individual competitions will be held next weekend until the end of the season. It took place in Sapporo, 10,000 km from Lake Placid.

From there it is nearly 9,000 km to fly ski to Oberstdorf. Ski jumping is hard work.

“The jumps are not very easy or with the right rhythm, I can do it better,” he said. Wellinger made up the points as Kraft, who was leading at the break, fell to 24th due to poor winds.

On Saturday evening, Wellinger put the pressure on himself in the tough Super Team competition with a stunning final jump of 128.0m over three rounds.

He countered with a precise landing: in the end, Wellinger and Raimond took second place after six jumps and more than 700 meters in the air, a little eleven centimeters behind the Austrian.