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ÖSV head coach Andreas Widhölzl nominated Kraft because of his performance in training in Seefeld for the traditional competition that begins on Monday (December 28) with qualifying in Oberstdorf. Kraft was the last Austrian to win the tour six years ago. Schlierenzauer, who was also infected with the virus, had failed to make the top 20 in his few World Cup starts as Kraft.
Thomas Lackner (fourth in Nizhny Tagil) and Markus Schiffner (tenth in Nizhny Tagil, eleventh in Ruka), on the other hand, had convinced ÖSV managers and, according to the association’s announcement on Wednesday, as well as Philipp Aschenwald, Michael Hayböck and Daniel Huber will be there at the start. The seventh member of the team on the tour is Jan Hörl, who secured the additional starting position as leader of the Continental Cup.
End of a success story
Schlierenzauer missed the opening competitions for the third time since 2016. The tour had become a success story for the Tyrolese. In 2006, when he was 16 years old, he achieved the third of 53 World Cup victories (record) in the starting town of Oberstdorf. Eight more hits followed in the hills on the tour to Bischofshofen in January 2013; at the time, Kraft first attracted attention as a third. With nine victories a day, Schlierenzauer is number three on the tour’s best list.
But Schlierenzauer has been unsuccessful in the World Cup for just over six years: rule changes, injuries and personal problems caused the former child prodigy to lose a beat. Stubai, who now have former DSV national coach Werner Schuster as an advisor, are trying everything to get closer to the top again. However, so far it has been partially successful.
“Of course I am disappointed”
The non-nomination for the tour’s first two stops stops at Oberstdorf, where the final was missed in the last two appearances in 2017 and 2019 as 31, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen now means another setback. “Of course I am disappointed, anything else would be contradictory. The fact that there is currently no 120-meter hill ready to jump in Austria doesn’t make it any easier, ”Schlierenzauer wrote on his website.
The former world champion in the big hill (2011) and in ski flight (2008) achieved a 24th and 30th place in the dress rehearsal of the tour in Switzerland as the best results. Now he will compete again at Engelberg on Sunday and Monday (December 27 and 28), but in the Continental Cup. Then there will be starting locations in home tour competitions in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. Schlierenzauer wished the ÖSV team “big jumps and the greatest possible success” for the tour.
ÖSV lineup: Philipp Aschenwald, Michael Hayböck, Daniel Huber, Jan Hörl, Stefan Kraft, Thomas Lackner, Markus Schiffner
