Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica: Karl Geiger and Andreas Wellinger jump onto the podium

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Andreas Wellinger (middle) is happy about second place, Constantin Schmid and Markus Eisenbichler congratulate

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Yuriy Kodrun / Getty Images

The two German ski jumpers Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger surprisingly won silver and bronze at the World Championships in Slovenia.

Wellinger, who came second on Saturday, was only beaten by Poland's Piotr Żyła.

Geiger was happy about third place.

The finale was repeatedly interrupted by breaks in the wind.

Żyła used his optimal conditions and jumped from 13th to first place.

None of the following jumpers could displace him, also because a strong tailwind alternated again and again with an updraft.

Wellinger jumped a strong 101 and 102 meters on the normal hill.

Wellinger was already in second place after the first round, Geiger was third.

The competition was extremely tight: At half-time there was less than 2.5 meters between leader Stefan Kraft from Austria and tenth-placed top favorite Halvor Egner Granerud.

“It's incredibly awesome.

I really hammered out one with determination," said Wellinger on the ZDF microphone: "The only thing missing for the top were the judges, who only gave me 18.5.

But the jumps were really great.” With a better rating, Wellinger could have gone for first place.

Constantin Schmid took seventh place as the third best German.

Markus Eisenbichler ended up in 13th place.

National coach Stefan Horngacher said: "Two medals, that's unbelievable.

The last few weeks have been tough.

What the guys showed today was brute strength.

I'm very satisfied.« Even at the Four Hills Tournament, the DSV-Adler had disappointed across the board.

Wellinger and Geiger gave the German Ski Association their third and fourth precious metal in Planica within a few hours.

Previously, the German ski jumpers around Katharina Althaus had won gold as a team.

Julian Schmid took silver in Nordic Combined.

kjo/dpa