Paschke rose from sixth in round one to take victory ahead of four Austrian jumpers, after Nika Prevc made a winning start to her World Cup title defence.

A spectacular second round jump from Pius Paschke saw him take the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 2024/25 opener at Lillehammer on Saturday (23 November).

The German was sixth after round one, but a leap of 138.5m – earning him a score more than eight points higher than the rest of the field – propelled him into a lead he would not give up. This was the 34-year-old’s second career World Cup win with his first coming in Engelberg last December.

No fewer than four Austrians occupied the spots behind Paschke with Daniel Tschofenig second ahead of Maximilian Ortner in just his second World Cup competition. First-round leader and World Cup holder Stefan Kraft was fourth with Jan Hoerl fifth.

There was a farewell ceremony for Daniel Andre Tande after the first round following the Norwegian’s retirement at the end of last season. He was unable to inspire his former teammates, however, with Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal heading the home challenge in seventh.

Teenager Tate Frantz of the United States finished in 10th to secure his first World Cup top-10 finish at the start of his second year on the circuit.

Having suffered from illness in the run-up to the competition, Japanese star Kobayashi Ryoyu took 16th. The men head to Ruka in Finland for another large hill competition next weekend.

Earlier, women’s crystal globe holder Nika Prevc was a comfortable winner thanks to jumps of 138.5m and 138m. Her total of 269.9 points was more than 20 clear of the rest with German pair Katharina Schmid (247.6) and Selina Freitag (244.4).

Norway’s Ingvild Synnoeve Midstkogen, who won two medals at January’s Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, had her first World Cup top-10 finish with the 16-year-old taking fifth place. The next women’s round is in Zhangjiakou, People’s Republic of China in mid-December.