Norway's Johann Andre Forfang topped qualification for tomorrow's main event ©Getty Images

Norway's Johann Andre Forfang topped qualification for tomorrow's main event of the second leg of the Four Hills tournament with a leap of 140.5 metres, accruing 143.8 points, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Home favourite Richard Freitag is well placed after finishing fourth, whereas a trio of Polish jumpers Dawid Kubacki, Stefan Hula, and Kamil Stoch are also performing well and are in contention when the main event gets underway.

Qualification had taken place in fair weather following extremely testing conditions in the last event in Oberstdorf.

Clearly the competitors are hoping for a repeat.

"I hope for fair conditions in the competition tomorrow and if I can continue to jump like I did in the last couple of days then hopefully I'll be able to fight for the win," said Forfang. 

"Good jumps on that same level are my goal for the New Year's competition", added the Norwegian, who already held the longest jump in qualification in Oberstdorf.

Freitag says that small margins are likely to make a big difference with such a competitive field.

Germany's Richard Freitag is in good form once again in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the second station of the Four-Hills Ski Jumping tournament ©Getty Images
Germany's Richard Freitag is in good form once again in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the second station of the Four-Hills Ski Jumping tournament ©Getty Images

"The training was okay, I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he said. 

"It's fun to show good jumps. 

"The level is extremely high and the field is very, very close, it will be exciting tomorrow."

Last season's winner and overall leader, Stoch, finished sixth and emphasized his ambitions on defending his Four Hills title.  

"It was a good day for me, the jump was okay so I'm satisfied," the Pole said. 

"We can be happy to have such a strong team and we appreciate it. 

"This is the key to success." 

Fifth place in qualification went to Japan's Junshiro Kobayashi, who remains a consistent performer and has the capability to do well. 

Three Slovenian jumpers came in eighth, ninth and tenth in Jernej Damjan, Anze Semenic, and Peter Prevc who all  confirmed the team's good form under head coach Goran Janus. 

Teenager Timi Zajc, at just 17, qualified 16th to underline his potential.

Behind World Cup leader Freitag came his his teammates Markus Eisenbichler and Karl Geiger who tied for 12th, Andreas Wellinger was 15th and Stephan Leyhe was 20th.

It was a really bad day for two of the all-time greats of Ski Jumping.

Simon Ammann and Noriaki Kasai finished only 51st and 58th and failed to make the cut to qualify for the New Year's event.